LaMagra
by shadowglove
Summary: Sequel to House of Frost. When Frost proves that Chloe isn't safe with him, she joins up with Kal, who refuses to be the minion of anyone. Doesn't help that Inquisitor Reporter, Lois, is searching for her cousin and getting close to the vampire secret.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Blade**

Sequel to: House of Frost

WARNING: This story has a vampiric KAL EL, not Clark Kent. You know the difference. It's not just the name. So be ready for his attitude and behavior.

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No one in the whole of Metropolis seemed to know where Chloe Sullivan had disappeared to.

"I'm telling you, Karen, it's as if she's disappeared into thin air." Lois Lane, Chloe's older cousin and a rising star journalist of the Metropolis Inquisitor paced the Metropolis General Hospital's Hematology lab, unable to keep herself calm. It'd been weeks since Chloe and Clark had gone missing, and Lois was about to go insane with worry and frustration (not to mention how the Kents were). Chloe was her baby cousin, Lois had just gotten her back, and she was terrified that something must have happened to the younger girl to cause her to disappear off of the face of the earth like this. The only little consolation was that Smallville was with her, and while Kent was annoying sometimes Lois knew without a doubt that while he was alive he'd never let anything happen to Chloe. "And Lana knows something, I know she does!"

Her friend, Karen Jansen, gazed down at the blood on the slate in front of her. "Then talk to her."

"I _have_!" Lois threw her hands in the air. "Lana is _obviously_ hiding something but she isn't cracking!"

Curtis, an ex of Karen's who'd brought in a blood sample for her to check, seemed more interested in the topic than Karen. "If she was friends with your cousin and the girlfriend of the boy who disappeared...she'd _tell_ if something happened to them and she knew what it was."

"Usually I'd agree with you, but you don't understand." Lois had no problem with airing her problems in front of a near stranger. "Lana is completely different. She was the pink princess in high school and now I only am able to catch her when she's out at night going from party to party. Ever since she joined that sorority it's as if they'd taken the Stepford out of her and made her some playboy bunny with a fetish for leather and darkly kohled eyes!"

"Didn't you say some months ago she needed to sexify her look?" Karen mumbled, adjusting the lens of the microscope.

"She's not worried, Karen." Lois' heels tapped furiously as she continued to pace the floor. "Whenever I try to talk to her now she just gets annoyed! She's hiding something! And I'm going to get to the bottom of it if it's the last thing I do!"

Karen sat back from the microscope she'd been eyeing while listening to Lois rant, appearing stumped as she turned to look at Curtis. "You took this off a DOA?"

Curtis nodded slowly, swishing in his seat.

"This isn't human blood." Karen frowned.

"Then what is it?" Curtis wanted to know.

Lois stopped pacing, turning to look at the doctors.

"I don't know..." Karen motioned to the microscope. "Look at this blood smear-."

"Can I?" Lois hijacked the microscope, gazing at the blood.

Curtis pouted.

Karen smirked, shaking her head. "The red blood cells are biconvex, which is theoretically impossible."

"Why impossible?" Lois wanted to know, looking up at the doctor.

"They're hypochromic, there's virtually no hemoglobin in them." Karen declared, hands on her hips as she shook her head. "Look at the PMNs, they're binucleated, they should be mononucleated."

"Now, say that all in _English_." Lois frowned as she moved away from the microscope in confusion, letting Curtis have his look.

"Basically there are two nuclei when there should only be _one_." Karen replied as if this should answer it all.

It still left _a lot_ of questions in Lois' mind but she figured she could ask them later, so she nodded as if she'd understood.

"What about the chemistry panel?" Curtis wanted to know, still eyeing the blood.

Karen wheeled over to the computer and gazed at the screen, making a face. "Blood sugar level is three times the norm, phosphorous and uric acid are off the scales." She shook her head. "Impossible this came from a human."

"If that blood didn't come from a human...what did it come from?" Lois wanted to know, that Inquisitor's Best inside of her already brimming with fantastical ideas as to the origin of the blood, theories ranging from shape-shifters to aliens.

Karen removed her glasses, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Curtis, it's three in the morning. I'm really not in the mood for one of your practical jokes."

"It's not a joke!" Curtis insisted. "I've got the stiff sitting in the morgue right now! Look, just come up and see him, okay? Five minutes, that's all I ask."

"I thought you promised to give me some distance?" Karen narrowed her eyes at him.

"This is purely professional curiosity Karen, I swear." Curtis turned to Lois. "Bring her along if it helps you feel more comfortable."

Lois grinned, wanting to see the thing with her own eyes, maybe even take some discreet pictures should this be a story in the making.

Karen rolled her eyes as she stood, letting loose a tired sigh. "Five minutes, not a second more."

Curtis nodded, leading the two women down to the morgue and passed them each a mask before donning one himself as he led them to the burnt crisp of a body, which was laid on an autopsy table.

Lois made a face as she gazed at the body, which certainly looked as if it'd once belonged to a human.

A preliminary exploratory Y-incision had been made across the chest, stretching from shoulder to shoulder, then continuing on down the abdomen. Ribs and cartilage had been cut open to expose the heart and lungs.

"You haven't started in on the internal organs?" Karen sent a sideways glance towards her ex.

Curtis shook his head. "Just the blood sample from the pericardial sac."

They could have been speaking Latin for all Lois knew...and then the thought of Latin made her think of her know-it-all baby cousin who actually _knew_ Latin...and that worry clenched tighter in the brunette's chest.

Curtis paused, studying the body's disfigured face. "That's weird."

"What is?" Lois asked, desperate for a distraction from her constant worry.

"He looks different now, burns are less extreme, some of these wounds have closed up..."

"You think he's _healing_?" Lois asked in shock, giving the burnt crisp a wide-eyed stare.

Karen seemed unimpressed.

Curtis pulled out a penlight and flicked it on as he leaned over the body, shining the light into one of his eyes.

"What's his story?" Lois asked, curiosity eating her.

"I asked the Paramedics that when they brought him in." Curtis replied, still eyeing the corpse. "Said he was still screaming when they found him. Apparently something must have gone down in one of those underground raves, and this one ended up stapled to a wall, on fire."

"A rave gone bad." Lois mumbled to herself, wondering if this was drug related. "Why haven't I picked up any of this on my police scanner?"

"You have a police scanner?" Curtis looked up at her in shock, forgetting about the dead body.

She nodded, reaching into her bag and pulling out what looked like a walkie-talkie, giving it a little shake. "Never go anywhere without it."

Suddenly the body from the table bolted up, sinking its teeth into Curtis' jugular. He snapped the man's neck in two for easier access, sucking in blood desperately, loudly, messily.

Karen stumbled backwards, sending autopsy tools clattering.

Lois' eyes widened as the thing, which truly couldn't be human, rose from the table, flinging Curtis' twitching body aside.

He curled his blood-soaked lips back, baring viper-like fangs, emitting a guttural growl, sounding crazed. "_More..."_ he gazed between them. "_Blood_..."

Lois' lips parted as she realized what she was staring at.

Vampire.

The one thing she was sure was actually a _myth_.

Her eyes widened.

If she could get proof of this, a picture, a recording, it could make her _career_!

Karen backed into the corpse drawers, but the creature was upon her in a half-second, wrapping a hand about her throat. His mouth opened, morphing disturbingly wide as if to swallow her head whole, caustic saliva dripping from his canines. Karen tried to turn her head away but the thing's grip was vise-like, and then she was staring into his eyes, pupils pulsing rapid-fire, opening and closing, hypnotic...and she seemed to forget her need to struggle, staying doll-like in his arms.

The vampire sinking the tips of his fangs into Karen's carotoid artery, starting to nurse, jolted Lois out of her shock. The brunette grabbed the first thing she could find, some sort of autopsy tool, and jammed it into the back of the creature's head, causing him to yell and throw Karen into the wall before turning towards Lois, yanking the tool out of his head with a snarl.

Suddenly the door was kicked open and a rifle fired, buckshots chewing into the vampire's side and driving him away from Lois as he howled in pain as another load caught him full in the face.

Lois, eyes wide, turned to face her rescuer the same time the vampire did, noticing a tall African American wearing...sunglasses in the night...and black leather. He held a streetsweeper auto-shotgun, sizing the vampire.

The vampire, face all messed up, snarled. "_Blade_."

This Blade character sneered. "Quinn, we're looking _dapper_."

Quinn bellowed with rage, ripping one of the heavy steel refrigeration doors from its hinges, flinging it at Blade like it was a lawn furniture.

Lois quickly fumbled in her bag and pulled out her camera, beginning to film.

Blade rolled to the side as the door crashed against the wall.

Quinn ran, moving through the morgue like a human tornado, heading for the windows at the end of the room before jumping through the glass, taking half of the wall with him.

Blade rushed to the decimated window, looking down.

Putting down the still recording camera, Lois rushed to her friend, as Karen bled her life away on the floor. "Karen?" She fell to her knees next to the pretty African American. "It's going to be okay. You're in a hospital. You'll get help." She looked up towards the morgue's door. "SOMEONE HELP!"

Blade spun towards them, eyeing them. "She was bitten."

Lois tore off her jacket and bunched up the material, using it to apply pressure to the torn up neck, trying to stop the gushing blood. "Can you help her?"

He turned and headed towards the back exit.

"If you can help her you can't just walk away!" Lois snarled at him.

He stopped and sighed before turning towards her and returning to look down at Karen, face betraying the fact that he was having an inner conflict, before finally making a decision. "You will stay here or she'll die." He sent Lois a look she couldn't read due to those damned shades as he knelt, scooping Karen up into his arms.

Suddenly two policemen rushed into the morgue, weapons drawn.

"Hold it, asshole!" The first yelled.

"No! Don't shoot!" Lois jumped up, putting herself between them, arms up. "He just saved our lives!"

"Ma'am, you don't understand, he's a dangerous killer." The second cop told her. "Come over here Miss, it's not safe."

Blade turned to face the window right before him.

Lois noticed this, sending him a quick glance over her shoulder. It was a good thirty feet to the roof of the adjacent building, a parking structure...and damned if Blade didn't seem to be considering the jump. "What are you doing?"

The police closed in, agitated.

Blade crouched, switching Karen to a one-handed grip.

"I said hold it!" The first cop yelled.

Lois' eyes widened and she let out a little yell as Blade jumped out of the window Quinn had already broken.

The brunette rushed to the window and watched as Blade cleared the impossible distance...almost. He snagged the ledge of the adjacent parking structure with his left hand even as Karen slipped from the grasp of his right...only to save her at the last second as his fingers clamped around her wrist. Karen, barely conscious, managed to scream as she dangled.

The cops pushed Lois out to the side, eyes wide as they watched the man swing Karen like a pendulum, heaving her up and over the ledge as if she were a sack of potatoes.

Lois backed away slowly, grabbing the tool she'd stabbed Quinn with and putting it into a plastic bag before shoving it and the camera into her bag.

With the cops still staring out in shock as Blade swung onto the building and then disappeared with Karen, Lois disappeared as well.

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Chloe sat on her twirling chair, holding a cup of warmed blood as she watched Deacon go over the ancient manuscript she'd finally been able to fully decode and print off for his perusal. They were locked in what she now thought of as her office, the room filled with interconnected computers and one table with two chairs for whenever she was waiting for something to work and she could somehow get Crease to give up his post as her watchman and play Go Fish...which he always cheated at. The blonde though didn't have her companion slash guardian with her at the moment, only her sire and the Head of the House of Frost, of which she was a part of despite the fact that she had yet to be branded with the Frost tattoo due to the fact that she was figuratively chained to these computers and had been ever since she'd been sired by Deacon that night in the back alleys of Metropolis weeks ago.

Despite the fact that she'd been a vampire almost a month she had yet to go hunting, and had yet to experience much of what made a vampire a vampire. She felt caged and claustrophobic, and knew that Deacon's hold on her was never going to slacken. As a human she hadn't known she was a meteor freak, and when she'd been sired it'd messed with her genes and made her into what was commonly known as a Daywalker, and while silver hurt it didn't kill her either. The Daywalker was a rare occurrence, something Deacon had admitted that the Purebloods were trying (terribly unsuccessfully) to create, and that put her in some danger. Should the Purebloods find out that she was a Daywalker they would want to take her and experiment on her, find out how a half-blood like Deacon could have created her when they themselves were failing so tremendously. Given that, she'd been ordered by her sire not to tell anyone she was a Daywalker, and she was happy to follow the order.

It made her wonder though, because there were only two other Daywalkers she knew about, and both of them weren't Pureblooded.

The first Daywalker was the only one that the vampire race knew existed, and was half human. All she knew about him was that he was named Blade and he was a vampire hunter, the thing that Purebloods told their children about from the time they were young to spook them into behaving well. He had most of the vampires' strengths without their weaknesses except for bloodthirst, which was something no one could really fight. He sounded like a total badass, and if it wasn't for the fact that he'd kill her in a heartbeat Chloe might find him cool.

The second Daywalker was the only one she knew personally. Clark Kent, or Kal El, as he wished to be called now that she'd slipped him the red kyrptonite ring so that he'd feed and thus finish his transition into vampire.

Kal El was half _alien_, the first Kryptonian Vampire that she knew of, and the shift had changed him so that he couldn't stay out long in direct sunlight. Around thirty minutes or so in direct sunlight before his skin began to burn. It made her wonder how long he could last in the shade. Also, being able to be in the sunlight let him recharge his powers, which weren't as strong as they'd been when he'd been fully Kryptonian, but once he fully mastered how they'd changed Chloe had the suspicion Kal could be one of the Big Players in this game.

And then, of course, there was herself. She'd been a meteor freak. Now she had no problem with sunlight or silver and while she had yet to truly try out her strength or speed or whatever else made a vampire a vampire she knew at least her fangs worked...

All in all it made Chloe really wonder if it was _possible_ for a Daywalker to be Pureblooded.

"Are you sure that this is what it says that I need?" Deacon looked up from the section she'd been queasy over, gazing up at her.

She nodded, keeping her eyes fixed on his, tightening her hold on her mug of blood.

He stared deep in her eyes before smirking and reaching for her mug of blood, downing it in one gulp before throwing it behind him and yanking her up off of her seat up against him. Deacon smirked down at her before bringing his lips to hers in a ruthless kiss.

Chloe considered fighting him but knew that as a fledgling she was no match for him when it came to power be she Daywalker or not, so she let her hands hang loosely at her sides and let him kiss her passively, not struggling but not contributing to the kiss in the least. She knew he could feel her disinterest in his kiss.

She couldn't let him know that he needed the blood of just any Daywalker for his ritual.

Sure she was his little 'treasure' and there _was_ a Daywalker out there causing trouble and Deacon would go after Blade...but should his efforts fail she didn't put it past Deacon to use her instead for this ritual, and she wasn't about to be the sacrifice for some damned blood god.

Deacon pulled her closer, pressing her against his hardness.

Chloe tried to summon some sort of arousal out of this but couldn't and it worried her somewhat.

Vampires were randy bastards that went at it with multiple partners all hours of the day, that was normal and expected unless the vampire should find his or her bride and groom...and even then vampires were known to have more than one married partner...then again, although a married groom might have three wives he'd never have an affair with another vampiress. Lana had started telling her the rules, had mentioned something about monogamy only ever happening when they found The One...but then things with Lana had soured and Chloe hadn't seen her and couldn't ask for more information. And really, Crease wasn't the sort of person you asked these questions to.

Deacon's phone thankfully rung and he pulled away with a hiss, yanking his phone out of his pocket and shaking his head. "Just like Dragonetti to ruin my fun." Picking up the large finished manuscript, Deacon answered his phone and walked out. "What do you want?"

Sinking down onto her seat, Chloe let out a nervous breath, looking back at her computers, convincing herself that she'd erased all proof that there was something edited on that manuscript. She was safe.

She _was_.

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Blade piloted the '69 Oldsmobile 442 down the streets, moving through a series of increasingly degenerating neighborhoods, coming at last to the sprawling warehouse district. He approached a mammoth industrial facility that'd been cordoned off by cyclone fencing and razor wire. Ultra-violet floodlights illuminated the area, and an army of security cameras kept a watchful eye. Despite all this the place wasn't entirely safe, couldn't boast that somehow vampires wouldn't find a way passed all the security, but considering everything it was probably one of the most secure places in the world. That would do.

In the Olds, Blade glanced at the woman in the backseat, cursing himself for giving into his emotions. If that woman in the morgue hadn't interfered, hadn't spoken...if he hadn't stopped to wonder if someone who _could_ help had helped his mother all those years ago...

Grunting, shaking his head, Blade hit a remote secured to the sun visor and a gate creaked open.

The Daywalker drove the Olds around the back of the building, heading towards the concrete landing ramp. At the bottom of the ramp a heavy iron door rose, and the Olds disappeared into the darkness until UV lights flickered on inside, lighting up the massive loading elevator. It hummed as it ascended, eventually reaching its destination with a booming clang and the door at the rear glided open.

Blade guided the Olds out into the abandoned factory which was set up in an old ironworks, the place looking like a cross between an auto junkyard and an armory. Equipment was strewn everywhere-lathes, mills, old furnaces, gutted vehicles, an add hoc surgical theater...all of it jerry-rigged in a brutal, oily-tech.

Climbing out of the Olds Blade opened the passenger door and pulled the woman out, carrying her in his arms. "Whistler!"

"Are we bringing home strays now?" Whistler wanted to know as he hobbled out of the shadows, leaning heavily on a cane, obviously having spotted the woman in the car from the security cameras when Blade had been driving in. Abraham Whistler was gimlet-eyed, his right leg encased in a metal brace and although his face was lined with wrinkles and his hair long since gone gray one could sense that he could still easily kick the shit out of anyone, be he living or dead.

"She's been bitten." Blade said for a lack of something else.

"You should've killed her then." Whistler declared.

"She hasn't turned yet." Blade replied pointedly. "You can help her."

Blade and his mentor stared each other down until finally Whistler turned with a put-upon sigh, hobbling over to the operating theater.

"No promises." The grizzled old man declared with his bitter tone. "You watch her close. She starts to turn, you finish her off."

Blade nodded, laying the woman down on the operating table while Whistler turned on an overhead light.

The woman was sheathed in sweat, ashen. She'd lost a lot of blood and Blade wondered for a moment if it was even worth it to try.

Whistler snapped on a pair of surgical gloves, probing the wound in the woman's neck with an antiseptic swab, eyeing the capillary damage around the perimeter of the wound. The tissues appeared bruised, gangrenous. "Localized necrosis. She's borderline. Another hour and she'll be well into the change." He cracked open a smelling salt capsule and waved it under the woman's nose, watching her as she started to stir. "Can you hear me, woman?"

Her eyes were wide open, obviously scared and disoriented. "What-?"

"You've been bitten by a vampire." The old man told her straight. "We've got to try and burn out the venom, just like a rattlesnake bite." He reached for a massive syringe filled with caustic-looking fluid. The woman saw the syringe and began to resist, causing Whistler to sigh with annoyance. "Hold her."

Blade forced the woman down.

Whistler readied the syringe while peering at her name tag. "Dr. Karen Jansen...Listen close, I'm going to inject you with an antidote made from allium setivum-garlic. This is going to hurt. A lot_._" He then sunk the needle into the woman's neck and depressed the plunger.

The female shrieked, her body going into uncontrolled spasms. The wound on her neck began to smoke as the antidote attacked the poisonous vampire venom. She clutched at Blade's arms, digging her nails in while staring up at him with unflinching intensity, pleading with him.

Uncomfortable, Blade looked away, holding her down as she rode out the seizures.

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Vampires.

Vampires _existed_.

In her home Lois hadn't known what to do, hadn't felt safe, hadn't _liked_ not feeling safe.

She didn't know what legends about the creatures were true, but she'd grabbed her large container of powder garlic and covered each threshold for the doors and her windows with it, not knowing what else to do.

She'd then sat down and watched what she'd filmed, gulping.

Vampires.

Vampires _existed_.

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**Review?**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Blade**

Sequel to: House of Frost

Warning: attempted rape.

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She went looking for Kal.

Chloe knew that he wasn't Clark, that he wouldn't just sit down and listen to her problems out of the goodness of his heart and out of concern for her well-being, but this concerned him as well considering that any slip up could expose him for a Daywalker and then he too would be in hot water and a likely candidate for this ritual of Deacon's. He was her best friend, even if he _was_ his asshole alter-ego, and they _were_ still allies so she needed to warn him now quickly while Deacon was still absorbed in all things LaMagra. Her mind went over the ritual, remembering everything near perfectly, having known it was important for her to memorize this. And she forced herself to memorize it the edited way just in case, to memorize one of the ingredients needed for LaMagra's summoning being 'the Son of Darkness who walked in Light' and not 'a Day Walker' as it'd been originally.

It would still leave Deacon with the ingredient he needed, the blood of a Daywalker, yet by adding the masculinity to the term she'd made sure that she herself would be considered useless. Kal though...he needed to be warned and to stay on the alert because if discovered he could be kept as a 'spare' in case Blade couldn't be obtained.

"Have you seen Kal?" Chloe asked Mercury, one of Deacon's many lovers, and also a warrior.

The platinum blonde of some unkown European heritage raised an eyebrow at her and shook her head, not friendly yet not hostile either.

"Thanks." Chloe nodded, going further, sighing, wondering where in the world Kal was.

Knowing him he was screwing someone somewhere.

According to Crease, her only real source of news from outside her room ever since her falling out with Lana, Kal had quickly become the House of Frost's _stud_, with female vampires fighting each other viciously for him. He'd gone through most of the prettiest girls in the House, and seemed to be on a mission to sleep with every single woman. It explained Lana's depressed and resentful mood, but Chloe really didn't see how Lana could blame _her_ for this. Sure, she'd given Kal the ring that changed his personality from docile Clark to brash Kal, but Lana didn't understand that that was the reason of the change! She thought that this was Clark's way of putting his past behind him...and she was mad at _Chloe_ thinking they'd had some sort of affaire.

Truthfully, Chloe was probably one of the only women in the House who _hadn't_ slept with Kal.

"Have you seen Kal?" She asked another female, figuring that if news of his popularity with the girls was true one of them would be able to tell her where he was.

The vampire moved on without even acknowledging Chloe's question.

"_Bitch_." The blonde hissed as she watched her go, before turning around and giving a little surprised shriek as she found herself face to face with Crease.

"Your instincts are deplorable." He informed her, eyebrow raised. "You should have been able to sense me here."

She raised her eyebrow at him. "Do you know where Kal is?"

Eyeing her Crease nodded, motioning with his chin for her to follow as he led her through the large House. There were many levels and sublevels, many rooms and many different things Chloe didn't recognized or understand, but she followed in silence until they reached outside a room. She wondered for a moment why they weren't going inside when she heard it.

"Oh _hell_!" A female gasped, breathy. "Yes! _Yes_!"

Kal's laugh was low and sensual.

The female cried out.

Chloe brought her hand to her face as she joined Crease where he was leaning against the wall. "So the rumors weren't exaggerated."

Crease chuckled in manly amusement as he shook his head, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a pack of cigarettes, offering one to her.

"No thanks." She shook her head.

He kept it held out to her. "What's it gonna do? Kill you?"

With that reasoning she reached out and snagged one, eyeing it curiously.

"_More! Just like that!_"

Chloe inhaled the smoke as Crease lit the cigarette it for her and she promptly choked, bending over.

Crease laughed at her quite evilly, taking an expert whiff.

Sending him a dark glare Chloe coughed as she straightened herself, tapping her chest and holding the cigarette as far away from her as physically possible. "This is vile."

"_YES!_"

"See? She agrees with me." Chloe informed him, unable to keep her lips from twitching with amusement.

Crease chuckled once more. "Gotta give him props. He seems to know what he's doing."

"Oh please." Chloe rolled her eyes, uncomfortable with talking about her best friend's quite active sex life. "It's a simple matter of inserting Appendage A into Orifice B."

"Damn." Crease blew out a perfect ring of smoke. Showoff. "How long has it been for you?"

She paused, sending him a wary little pout as the girl in the room made ridiculous noises. "None of your business."

Crease turned so that he was facing her, leaning with his side against the wall. "That long, huh?"

She flipped him off, taking a more cautious whiff of the cigarette, ending up choking on the smoke once more and coughing. "Take it, I give up."

Snorting, Crease relieved her hands of the burning atrocity and flicked it into a nearby plant. "Pussy."

"Dick." She coughed out.

He laughed out a wall of smoke. "Orifice B."

Chloe let out a bark of laughter as well as she coughed, glancing up at him. "Appendage A."

The door to Crease's left opened and a pretty redhead emerged, trying to straighten her clothes as she walked away...awkwardly.

Chloe and Crease both watched her go before sharing darkly amused looks.

Kal emerged from the room, looking every bit the prized stallion as he zipped back up his pants, pausing for a moment when he noticed Chloe and Crease.

Crease snorted, flicking the remaining stub of his cigarette into the same potted plant he'd put Chloe's before turning and leaving, breathing out his last lungful of smoke, hands deep in his pockets.

Chloe watched him go before turning back to Kal, tilting her head with amusement. "She was so sore she was _limping_."

In seconds Kal's face shifted into a smirk as he took the position Crease had vacated. "I try my best." He turned to lean his back against the wall. "She was so _loud_."

"You're telling _me_." Chloe sniggered, nudging him with her shoulder before beginning to mimic the redhead mockingly. "More Kal! Yes! Like that! Hell! Yes! Yesssssss!"

Kal groaned, rolling his head to smile at her. "Were you looking for me or did you just get drawn in by the noise?"

Chloe's smile slipped from her face as she gazed at him. "Tonight during our hunt I need to talk to you."

His face went serious as well as he leaned heavily against the wall, eyeing her intensely before nodding. "Of course."

"Hey Kal!" A blonde giggled as she passed by.

A brunette passing in the other direction gave the passing blonde an ugly look.

"How many of these women have you actually slept with?" Chloe asked in curiosity as she noticed the dark, distrustful looks women everywhere were sending her.

Kal grinned. "Do I look like the type to kiss and tell?"

"Yes." She responded, returning her gaze to him.

He chuckled, resting an arm around her shoulder as he moved them through the throng of glaring females. "I wish to sample the many flavors and passions in life, and so I have been making up for the ridiculously _chaste_ years my alter ego put me through."

Chloe flinched, remembering Clark and the betrayals he'd suffered at both Lana's and her hands.

"When Clark had sex with Lana it was slow and terribly cautious. He only had sex with her when he lost his powers that once." Kal felt the need to tell Chloe, apparently considering her his bro or something like that. "But sex with vampirettes? Nothing cautious about _that_."

"Vampirettes?" Chloe made a face at that. "Don't you _ever_ call me that."

"Don't worry. I have a special name for you." He winked at her.

Chloe sighed as the heated glares directed in her direction intensified.

Great.

Just great.

She didn't have to worry about being sacrificed to some blood god.

Kal and his slut dick were going to be the death of her.

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Once again the police scanner wasn't picking up any news from the police channels about what had happened in the hospital. First the rave...and then a kidnapping and homicide and yet _nothing_. Lois checked the local news and waited for some little mention of at least_ something_ going down at the Metropolis General Hospital and yet other than to mention that the annual blood drive was going to be held soon there was no mention of the hospital. It made all of Lois' alarms go off. This was prime news and yet it wasn't seeing the light of day, and that could only mean one thing: someone was paying a _lot_ of people to make sure that they stayed quiet.

That worried her because that meant she could be in deep trouble for what she'd seen, and recorded, at the hospital, and it was with that knowledge that she packed hastily yet thoroughly, leaving her home before she could be identified and tracked back there. She didn't know where she was going but she knew she couldn't call anyone, none of her friends or family could get caught in the middle of this. She had gotten herself into this mess and she was going to have to get herself out of it.

She just hoped Karen was alright.

Did one bite turn a person into a vampire?

What was real and what was false?

Vampires.

Vampires _existed_.

As Lois stepped onto a bus and went to sit by the window, she gazed out at the dark city around her.

She wished Chloe was here.

She knew her cousin would get a kick out of this revelation.

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When Karen came too she reacted to the last memories she remembered before darkness, gasping as she sat up and brought her hand to her neck, finding the wound bandaged, betraying that those weren't nightmares. She'd been attacked, Curtis was dead, and the last she could remember Lois was still alive somewhere. Karen remembered the man with the incredible strength taking her here, and she gulped, wondering if she truly was safe. She'd obviously seen too much, knew too much. But then again, why heal her if only to kill her?

Rising shakily the doctor took in the spartan room she was in. On the wall was a collection of knives and daggers, some of them wooden, their hilts inscribed with bizarre looking runes. In the center of these weapons rested a sword hanging like a cross in a chapel, dominating all else. She reached out and touched it before her gaze dropped to a silver locket that dangled from the hilt by a tarnished chain. Karen reached for it, opened it, and gazed at the photo inside. It was old and faded yet the pretty African American woman in the picture was still visible as she stood under the sun smiling at whomever had taken the picture.

Taking in a deep breath Karen let the pendant slide from her fingers as she turned towards the door, cautious. She could hear voices and followed it out of the room, hearing them coming from a series of black-out curtains. She pushed one aside silently and her gaze fell upon the African-American male who'd saved her life and brought her here strapped into some kind of Inquisition-esque restraint chair. His shirt was odd, his body slick with sweat. A jolt of female appreciation rushed through her body.

The old man who'd injected her with that horrible substance the night before was finishing strapping the younger man in before standing back, holding up a gas-powered pistol injector, hesitant. "I had to increase the dose. You're building up a resistance to the serum."

The dark man spoke, impatient. "Just do it, old man."

The older man nodded, fitting him with a bite guard before pressing the pistol-injector against the man's carotoid artery.

Her rescuer shook violently, grinding his teeth through the bite guard, veins cording in his neck. He clutched the old man's hand, holding it tightly as he fought his way through what seemed like hellish agony.

Karen winced, wanting to run away from this place and these people and yet she was fascinated as she watched the two as the spasms and seizures continued to wrack the younger man until he finally slumped forwards in his restraints, appearing exhausted. She then drew back, feeling guilty, as if she'd witnessed something intimate that she had no right to have seen. Her gaze then fell on another doorway, realizing that this might be her way out.

Instead it was a dusty, darkened hole of a room with no windows, just shadows and a large tank filled with swirling blood plasma and choked with electrical leads and biomedical sensors. Something floated within, suspended in the murky fluid, and it took her a couple of seconds of narrowed gazing to realize that it was a child no older than two or three years of age, drifting about like a medical oddity preserved in formaldehyde.

She brought a hand to her lips to silence her gasp of horror.

What sort of monsters were these people to do this to a _child_?

She needed to get out of here immediately!

Suddenly the child slammed up against the glass, the unexpected movement causing the doctor to backpedal, startled. The child's eyes were now open, pupils blown. It snarled, revealing a mouth full of razored teeth. The thing trailed mouth-slime across the glass as it futilely tried to chew its way through to her.

Monsters.

Everything here were monsters!

Turning, Karen gave a little scream as she came face to face with the man who had saved her, the sword that'd been on the wall in her room now in his hands.

Karen backtracked slightly, wary.

"You shouldn't be here." His voice was a deep rumble.

"I'm sorry...I-." Karen gulped.

"Wandered off the beaten path, Doctor?" The old man asked as he entered the room from a second doorway she hadn't even noticed.

"Who _are_ you people?" She squeaked, trying to be brave.

"My name is Abraham Whistler." The older man declared. "This is Blade." His gaze went to the tank. "As for our little homunculus here...he's a vampire."

"You're joking-." Although, how else could she explain that creature?

"Not at all." Whistler shook his head. "You're looking at a prime specimen of the homines nocturna." His gaze returned to her. "If Blade hadn't brought you here, you would've wound up like him."

Karen brought a hand to her bandaged neck, thinking back to the events of the night before as she turned to Blade. "Lois...is she-?"

He raised his chin. "When we left she was fine."

Karen breathed a breath of relief before narrowing her eyes even further. "Why did you help me?"

He scowled, gaze flickering to Whistler. "Stupidity."

"Maybe not." Whistler declared, seeming to be appraising her. "I did some checking, she's a hematologist. Knowledge like that might come in handy."

"It's not worth the risk." Blade shook his head. "We can't trust her."

She was getting annoyed at their talking about her as if she wasn't there. "Why?"

"You're tainted." He told her with some disgust. "The venom's still inside you. You could still turn on us."

"What happens then?" Karen asked, feeling the suspicion that she didn't really want to know the answer.

Blade looked to Whistler before returning his gaze to her. "Then I have to take you out, just like any other bloodsucker."

And then, after delivering so cheery a message, he turned and left.

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It was day so everyone was resting, gearing up for the night that would soon fall upon them.

Now that she didn't have anything to translate, and had spoken to Kal and warned him about what was going on, Chloe didn't have much to do and could instead spend the day in her room doing nothing for the first time since she'd been sired. Her mind didn't rest though, despite the fact that her body was enjoying the soft bed. No, her mind was going over the ritual Deacon would have to perform to become one with LaMagra, and she went over what she'd researched on the blood god himself. There really wasn't much out there about him, he was old and fierce. From the little she'd managed to dig up on him, even vampires kinda gave him the wide berth.

The fact that Deacon wanted to merge with this guy...it left her uneasy.

But other than that...she really didn't have any reason to work against Deacon. He was her sire and he was keeping her safe. If she managed to skirt his attentions she knew she could work her way high up his House's ladder. If there was something she was, Chloe knew it was _useful_, and she could easily see herself and Kal holding high ranking positions.

Deacon also hadn't asked her to kill her human family and loved ones as some other Houses ordered. All in all, it made sense to back Deacon.

Chloe took in a deep breath, trying to relax.

The door to her room slid open, revealing a male outline before he stepped in and the door closed.

Sitting up in her bed, Chloe's eyes widened and yanked at her sheet as she recognized her sire in the darkness, shirtless, the first button of his pants undone. "Do you need something?"

He smirked, stalking towards the bed. "I've been patient, Chloe."

He had?

_When_?

She tightened her grip on the sheet, keeping her eyes on his. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't play coy, baby." Deacon came closer, playing with his zipper. "We both knew this was coming."

Chloe pressed back against the headrest, heart and pulse racing. "No, we both didn't."

A flash of amusement made him grin. "I see, you like playing games. So do I."

"This isn't a _game_." Chloe jolted out of bed, eyes flashing with her emotion as she backed away from him into the wall. "I am not interested and I've never tried to hide that."

His lips twitched as he tilted his head, slowly moving forwards, stalking her as if she were still just human. "You know what we're going to do. You know the ritual."

She nodded, not understanding what one thing had to do with the other.

"With the fall of the House of Erebus the House of Frost will rise from its ashes and take sovereignty of the Vampire Houses and Overlords. I alone will be the Vampire King we've needed for so long." With a quick movement he grabbed her hands, slamming them into the wall above her head with only one of his, easily containing her and her struggles. "LaMagra and I will be one." With his free hand he lowered his zipper and freed himself. "And you, my little Daywalker, you still have a heartbeat. You still have a pulse." He reached down to kiss the pulse racing in her neck reverently. "Will my sperm live once its inside of your womb and give me live-born children like the Purebloods?"

Chloe's eyes widened in horror as she stopped struggling, realizing that this had been planned the second the fact that her heart and pulse still worked had been discovered.

She realized that no matter how much she struggled, he wasn't going to let go.

He was going to take something else away from her other than her life.

And once again she was powerless to stop him.

"I'll scream." She whispered, voice wavering, promising herself she would fight him to the very end.

"I'll like it." He revealed, reaching down to yank her shorts and underwear passed her hips at the same time.

Chloe gave a little shriek, trying to yank her hands from his grip, wriggling her body desperately.

Deacon chuckled as he grabbed her hip in a punishing hold and positioned himself against her, rubbing himself against the entrance with a hiss before-.

The door flew open and Kal stood in the doorway, seeming quite calm and non-responsive to the scene in front of him. "Deacon, Mercury sent me to tell you that an envoy from the Talos House has arrived and is requesting an immediate audience."

Deacon gave a little growl. "Danica has the _worse_ timing."

Chloe trembled slightly in his hold, terror and shame filling her, unable to look in her friend's direction.

The older vampire let go of her, not seeming to notice as she slid to her knees and pulled up her clothes, instead zipping himself up and turning to Kal, apparently forgetting all about her. "Find Vanessa, she'll entertain them while I'm getting more presentable." He then stormed passed Kal and left, muttering to himself.

Kal hesitated at the door, not coming in nor leaving.

Chloe couldn't bring herself to look at him, body trembling.

The door finally slammed shut behind him, leaving the traumatized blonde to the darkness she needed as sobs burst from her as she promised herself something in that moment of shaken horror.

Deacon Frost was going to _die._

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**Review?**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Blade**

Sequel to: House of Frost

Warning: Implied voyeuristic sex, and slight dub!con.

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In Whistler's workshop, beyond the grimy outer windows, Karen gazed at the sunlight. She lingered by the window, reeling from all the information she'd been fed and expected to digest. Vampires existed and so did vampire hunters...and she'd been bitten by the first and rescued by the second. Her world of fact and science was slowly crumbling all around her in a tragic heap that she'd never be able to put together again fully. Why couldn't this have happened to Lois? That crazy woman would have enjoyed this, would be writing frantically, already composing an article for the Inquisitor. But no. This had happened to _Karen_.

Blade began suiting up, strapping on body armor, loading ammunition. He strung the tarnished locket she'd seen before around his neck as if it were an amulet that could ward off evil, and then paused to inspect a modified pistol, sighting down the length of it. "We hunt them, moving from one city to the next, tracking their migrations."

She turned to look at him, not sure she wanted to know this.

"They're hard to kill since they tend to regenerate." Blade pulled the trigger on an empty chamber, then checked his next weapon.

"So what so you use then?" Karen tried for sarcasm. "A stake?"

Whistler nodded, seeming to not have notice her attitude. "Some of the old wives' tales are true. They're severely allergic to silver and various types of wood. Feed them garlic and they'll go into anaphylactic shock." He picked up a customized rifle with a UV entry light, flicking on the beam. "And of course there's always sunlight, ultra-violet rays.

Karen shook her head. "And you honestly expect me to believe all this?"

"I don't care what you believe." Blade told her firmly. "I saved your life once, I don't plan on making a habit of it. You want my advice, you'll be out of the city by nightfall. If you're stupid enough to stay, that's your business."

"I can't just leave!" Karen exclaimed in horror. "I have a life here! A career!"

"Not anymore." He replied in that voice of his. "You've seen one of them. You won't be allowed to live after that."

"What about Lois?" She found her voice asking. "She saw it too."

"She's probably dead already. Or turned." Blade replied feelinglessly.

Karen stared at him in horror.

Whistler gestured to the windows. "There's a war going on out there. Blade, myself, a few others-we've tried to keep it from spilling over onto the streets." He paused a beat. "Sometimes people like yourself and your friend get caught in the cross-fire." He then shrugged, proving that as far as he was concerned, that was just how things went.

Karen couldn't believe that. "I can go to the police. I have blood samples back at the hospital. I can show them."

"Do it." Blade snorted. "You'll be dead before you can file the complaint."

"That's ridiculous!" Karen was close to losing her temper. "No one's that powerful!"

Whistler sighed, obviously thinking her a fool and growing quickly annoyed with her. "You're talking about a brotherhood that predates the Catholic Church by thousands of years. Their survival depends on their ability to blend in. Chances are, you've encountered them and not even realized it. On the subway, in a bar."

Blade slung his CAR-15 onto his shoulder, impatient. He started towards the Olds, gesturing to her. "Get in. You're leaving."

"Wait." Whistler called, tossing her a small metal canister which she luckily caught. "Consider it a parting gift. Vampire mace...silver nitrate, essence of garlic."

Karen stared at it in disbelief. "That's it? You just patch me up and send me on my way?"

"There is one other thing." Whistler answered. "I'd buy yourself a gun if I were you. If you start becoming sensitive to daylight, if you start becoming thirsty regardless of how much you've had to drink...then I suggest you take that gun and use it on yourself." His eyes hardened. "Better that than the alternative."

Karen stared at him in horror, and subconsciously tightened her hold on the canister.

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Lois didn't know what to do. She'd spent the night at a church, figuring that that might be one of the only safe places. She'd nixed her phone at her apartment and only kept the police scanner on her, listening to it near religiously during the sleepless night. It proved to her that no one was reporting the incident at the hospital. Someone somewhere high on the food chain was bought, and that meant she couldn't go to the police. They were probably corrupt anyway. She wondered where Karen was and if she was okay...and then wondered about Chloe. What if something like this had happened to Chloe? What if her cousin and Clark had been killed by _vampires_?

Lois closed her eyes tightly at the thought.

What if one of those beasts had done something to her little cousin?

Lois went over the footage she'd recorded once more, if only to prove to herself that it'd really happened. She hadn't imagined it all. It hadn't been a dream. A delusion. It had happened. It was real. _Vampires_ were real.

A piece of her wanted to start writing the article that, accompanied with her evidence, would win her a Pulitzer.

Another piece wanted to break down and cry.

But a bigger piece wanted to find her cousin, wanted to know if vampires were the reason she'd disappeared, and Lois knew there was only one lead in Chloe's case.

Lana Lang was keeping something from her, and this time Lois wasn't going to back away and let the brunette keep quiet anymore. She was going to learn whatever it was Lana was holding from her.

Taking in a deep breath, Lois closed her hands around the crucifix she'd taken from Chloe's belongings when she'd gone to the apartment they shared the night before.

And then she stepped out of the church.

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By the time the door slid open later Chloe had composed herself and was sitting on her bed, coolly collected now that her decision had been made. Her green gaze rose and she paused for a moment, surprised to find Kal there instead of Deacon, whom she'd been expecting to return and finish what he'd started. She'd mentally prepared herself for what she knew was going to happen soon. And she'd let him. She wouldn't fight, would make him keep his guard down, and that way he'd never suspect what she was planning. If she even gave him the miniscule amount of doubt this plan would never work. She needed him consumed with all things LaMagra and confident that things here in the House were going smoothly.

Kal eyed her silently before finally speaking. "Deacon wants you to come. Apparently this Talos woman brought something he wants you to look over."

Taking in a deep breath, Chloe nodded, standing up from the bed. "My vacation was quickly over."

A muscle jumped in Kal's cheek as he watched her, before taking in an aggravated breath and motioning for her to follow him.

There was awkward silence between them as they walked through the abandoned halls, everyone else sleeping the day away. Chloe didn't know why she was ashamed given the fact that she hadn't done anything wrong, but she did feel as if she should have fought more, should have screamed for help...although she knew deep down inside of her that no one would help her against the Head of the House.

She finally sighed and looked at Kal when his intense stare was more than she could bare, but before she could open her mouth to say anything she realized something, staring at his eyes, which were focused intently on her. "Are you using your X-ray vision?"

He raised an eyebrow. "It's annoyingly weaker than before...but I still have the ability, yes."

"What are you looking for?" She wanted to know, feeling silly as she crossed her hands over her chest.

"You're not a virgin, Clark thought you were." Kal tilted his he'd to the side. "Was it Deacon?"

She shuddered at the thought of _that_ having been her first foray into the sexual world. "No. He was about to...when you came...it actually didn't...I've still only been with one man."

Kal eyed her before nodding as they continued walking.

They reached the door of the meeting hall and it was pushed open.

Taking in a deep breath Chloe raised her chin and walked forth, refusing to look like some victim, not in front of Deacon. Her gaze went to those in the lavish place, finding the female with the dark hair and fangs out, figuring she was Danica Talos, head of the House of Talos, which wasn't a particularly strong house and maybe that was the reason they'd joined forces with Deacon, sharing his ambition and desiring to rise when he did. There was another man by her side who shared some family resemblance, another huge blonde to her other side who should have been a wrestler...and a couple of other vampires. There was one vampire though...

He was...he was _handsome_.

Chloe gulped, getting distracted for a moment before reaching Deacon's side, forcing herself to take his hand when he offered it to her.

Vanessa gave a little hiss and yet otherwise didn't say anything.

Mercury, also in attendance, smirked at Vanessa's discomfort, obviously enjoying it immensely.

"Who is _this,_ Deacon?" Danica asked with a lecherous smile, giving a little sniff. "The human still lingers in her scent, newly sired I take it."

"Your nose..." Deacon smiled at her, nodding. "This is Chloe, my little advanced talent. Without her this plan wouldn't have come together as smoothly or quickly as it has." He brought her hand to his lips and kissed it while eyeing the House of Talos' representatives. "She's the one who broke the Code to the Book of Erebus."

The eyes were on her even more now.

Danica grinned. "So _you're_ Deacon's little secret weapon." She stood. "Deac, how about you trade me an hour with her for an hour with my little cabana boy?"

The vampire Chloe had been admiring tensed, anger crossing his eyes.

"You know I don't particularly enjoy my same sex." Deacon replied, tightening his hold on Chloe's hand proprietarily. "Call me old-fashioned."

"But I like a little..._entertainment_...while I'm doing business transactions." Danica replied, steel behind her words, proving that she was a force to be reckoned with and although she was an ally of Deacon's she wasn't going to be playing nice and would push for what she wanted.

"I doubt Deacon will let her out of his sight." Vanessa surprised everyone by speaking out of turn as she stared at Chloe in disgust. "He keeps her...close."

Deacon sent her a look that promised pain.

Vanessa's eyes widened and she looked away, immediately submissive.

But the damage had already been done, Chloe seemed like a weakness to Deacon, and she knew that he refused to have weaknesses, especially not in front of someone like Danica Talos who seemed to go for the throat at the first sign of weakness in those around her.

"That is laughable." Deacon sneered. "My annoyance is due to the fact that I myself have yet to take her."

Chloe fought the humiliation.

"Come now Deac, it's not like she's a _virgin_." Danica rolled her eyes in amusement. "Why don't you let my boy have her, and we can all enjoy while we talk business."

"I brought her here so she could go over that which you brought." Deacon's hold on Chloe's hand was hurting her.

"She can look at if afterwards." Danica replied.

Without another way out of this, Deacon finally let go. "_Fine_."

Vanessa's lips curled in a darkly pleased smile.

Right then and there Chloe decided Vanessa would die as well.

The handsome vampire from the Talos House came forwards and reached for her hand, seeming so used to this treatment that it somewhat scared her. His hand was large and rough as it closed around hers, and Chloe looked into his eyes before letting him lead her towards one of the empty reclining lounge pieces. He didn't lower them to it and start immediately, instead turning to her and gazing down into her face as he cupped it.

"First time performing for a crowd?" He asked softly, ignoring the eyes on them.

She nodded, never having done this before in front of an audience, and was terrified.

"Focus only on me and block them out." He whispered, his voice surprisingly calming as he leaned in and brushed a soft kiss to her lips before brushing against again, and again, until Chloe found her lips parting of their own will as her eyes closed.

Her body still trembled from fear and yet she wasn't terrified of him as she'd been with Deacon, opening her mouth to his kiss and battling his tongue when it invaded, claiming every inch within. The hands that'd been trembling limply at her sides came to his chest and found purchase on each side of his unzipped leather jacket. Her lips moved under his and her body curved willingly into him, and the shiver that ran down her body when she felt him slowly hardening against her stomach wasn't fear or disgust. Arousal simmered slowly in her veins and the gasp she let out as he reached down to grab her ass was one of surprised want.

"_There_..." he whispered against her lips between each kiss as he returned to teasing pecks. "_That a girl_."

She yanked at his leather, suddenly wanting him undressed, wanting to feel his smooth skin. She tried what he said, focused on him, only on him, tried to drown out the faces, the stares, the voices.

Finally that feeling, that desperate _want_ she'd heard vampires had when it came to sex, filled her as together they removed his jacket and shirt, coming in closer for a heated kiss.

She wanted him to remove all memory of Deacon, wanted it desperately.

With impassioned hands she worked on his belt.

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Karen was all sorts of confounded right now. Blade had dropped her off outside of her apartment with a warning about keeping her eyes open, and she'd gone to her place more than a little freaked out. She'd nearly used the vampire mace on two people in the elevator for crying out loud! The first thing she'd done was to call 911 and tell them she'd been at the hospital when Curtis had been killed, and they'd agreed to send someone over. She hadn't cared that Blade and Whistler said not to, those two were insane! It was the right thing to do! To go to the cops!

And then the cop who'd come over had tried to kill her. And the mace hadn't worked on him. Why? Because he _wasn't_ a vampire but a _familiar_...which, if she understood it well, was a human who worked for vampires out of the hope that they'd be turned one day. They bore the mark of the House of the vampire they worked for hidden on their body. Upon later analysis she'd discover that the policeman had had the tattoo of the House of Frost on his body, covered up by hair in his scalp.

Just when he'd been about to kill her Blade had burst through her front door and beaten the living shit out of him. That was when she found out he'd used her as bait, realizing that she'd be 'blockheaded' and would call in and he was curious to see who they'd send after her.

He'd then told her to get over it.

The asshole!

They'd brought the policeman with them to check out his police cruiser and in the trunk was a sophisticated medical cooling unit for transporting organs. Upon opening it they'd found plastic bags containing blood, and Blade had decided that the policeman had been on a blood run for his boss. Blade had interrogated the cop as to where his vampire overlord's house was and the cop had told him to fuck himself. And then Blade had nearly killed the cop, he would have if Karen hadn't intervened, letting the policeman get away. She couldn't believe Blade would have killed that man! Vampires were one thing! But he'd been a _human_!

Blade had been pissed at her, looking like he wanted to _murder_ her, and she'd felt terrified, especially after he'd yanked off his ever-present shades to reveal his eyes. They hadn't been human nor vampire, something else. They'd been emerald green laced with swirling flecks of red.

He'd snarled some ceremoniously self-righteous speech about her world not being the real world and about war and about her getting her head out of her ass...before he'd stormed into his Olds and left her behind in a cloud of exhaust.

Leaning hard against the police cruiser, Karen held herself tighter.

She needed to get out of town.

But before that she needed to get that blood sample Curtis had taken from the creature.

She needed to find a cure.

The sunlight hurt her eyes.

Karen gulped.

She was still infected.

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Lois frowned, knocking loudly on the sorority house's door, and yet no one answered. She'd tried all the doors, and the windows were locked and had thick curtains in them. The brunette had contemplated breaking one and sneaking in but had heard noise inside and realized that although they weren't answering, there was most definitely people inside and she'd get into trouble for breaking and entering. The last thing she needed now was the cops.

"Lana!" She pounded on the door harder, making it shake. "It's Lois! I need to talk to you dammit! Answer the door!"

"You're out of luck." A voice told her.

She spun around, bringing a hand to her heart to see a young pink-hared female standing behind her, licking a lollipop. "How so?"

"The sorority keeps an active night life on campus and they don't ever really come out during the day, preferring to catch their beauty rest then." The girl snorted. "You should try it at night, they're always out and about having parties then. You'll find your friend." Turning she walked away.

Lois watched her, frowning, turning to look at the sorority house and took a step back.

Black, thick curtains.

Nocturnal habits.

Gothic barbie transformation.

"Lana..." Lois whispered, backing away from the house more and more. "_No_."

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There was much fury inside of Deacon Frost as that wretched cabana boy of Danica's defiled the womb that might one day bare the first child born to halfbloods. Deacon was writhing with fury as the girl who'd played so innocent and hard to get with him not so long ago whimpered and arched and cried out for that _nothing_. Danica was going to pay for her part in this later, and so was pretty little Vanessa. Deacon didn't know whether he'd be more elated if his little Daywalker wasn't pregnant...or if she was. He'd kill that child, rip it out of her, if she was...but at least he'd know that his suspicions were right and she could be the mother of a new race. A race that would be fathered by _him_.

Finally it was over, and yet as that cabana boy whispered something to Chloe while her eyes were closed, lips parted...Deacon snarled at the intimacy, at the small smile that curved her lips.

Danica grinned, licking her lips.

Vanessa didn't appear as pleased as she had before.

Mercury seemed to have enjoyed the show immensely.

Kal was tense and silent, his eyes narrowed, a muscle jumping in his jaw.

And then, to top it off, one of his familiars appeared and announced that not only had some human doctor who knew about them survived...but that Blade had taken the blood he'd been bringing for them. And all of this in front Danica Talos and her people.

"Look, I know you're disappointed..." The familiar began.

"Crestfallen." Frost interrupted.

"But Blade was waiting for me." The human tried. "There wasn't anything I could do."

Deacon nodded, lapsing into momentary contemplation. "Tell me something, Gideon. What blood type are you?"

Gideon hesitated, obviously not sure how to answer. "I don't really know."

"Take a wild stab. A? B? O, perhaps?" Frost continued, really needing to take his rage out on something and this human was making it all too easy and deserving. "I'm interested in the antigens here, the agglutination reaction."

The familiar stammered as Deacon rose.

Sick of hearing that sound, in the blink of an eye Deacon lifted the human from the floor by his throat. "I'm going to guess AB positive." He smirked, listening to the human gurgle as Deacon's fingernails pierced his flesh, drawing blood.

Vanessa and Mercury eyed the human hungrily.

Deacon released the human, and before his body could reach the ground, the two women plus some vampires from the Talos house were on him, tearing him apart.

"This _Blade_." Danica declared, leaning forwards and ignoring the devouring going on to the side. "He's a real pain in the ass, isn't he?"

Deacon nodded as Chloe and the little whoreboy put back on their clothes. "An inconvenience."

"Not just for you." Danica replied, reclining back in her seat. "You know, I've heard it whispered that Overlord Damaskinos has a special vampire force being trained for the sole purpose of tracking and killing him."

"So have I." Deacon sneered, not having any use for Eli Damaskinos, who would be one of the first he'd kill once he became one with LaMagra. "Aren't they called something like the Bloodpack?"

Asher Talos, Danica's brother, smirked as he nodded. "Sounds like something for _werewolves_, doesn't it?"

Chloe slipped out of the room without permission, sending the fuckboy a small smile.

Deacon clenched his fists, suddenly feeling that urge to kill again.

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Slipping out into the sunlight for the first time since being sired, Chloe hissed as she brought her hand up to cover her eyes. The sunlight was way too bright, her body too hot. She darted away from the building into the closest shade she could find, breathing a breath of relief. Noticing a pair of shades resting upon the head of a woman coming towards her, busily talking to someone on her phone, Chloe waited for the redhead to pass before snatching the shades carefully from her head and putting them on, breathing a sigh of relief as suddenly all discomfort was gone. The blonde carefully stepped out into the sun, waiting for the pain and discomfort, and yet it wasn't there, only delicious warmth on her skin.

Apparently, as long as she kept her eyes shielded from the sunlight, she had no problem whatsoever.

Grinning at this revelation, the blonde moved on, remembering why it was that she'd braved the sunlight and going out in it without Deacon's permission given the fact that she was supposed to be hiding her status as Daywalker. She needed to find this _Blade_. The blonde suspected she might be able to sense him somehow, hadn't she been drawn to him before?

She didn't know where to go looking for him, or how exactly she'd get him to not kill her long enough to talk to him, but she had to try.

She figured she could go to what was left of the underground night club and see if she could pick up his scent from there.

With that plan, Chloe ventured forth.

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Lana Lang was a vampire.

Lana freaking LANG was a VAMPIRE!

Lois was having a nervous breakdown as she realized this.

It both filled her with wonder and horror because she could remember shortly before Chloe disappeared how her cousin had been complaining that Clark was whining on how different Lana was being and how he wanted Chloe to go talk to her.

Lois clutched the crucifix at her neck tightly.

What if Lana had done it? What if Chloe had given in and had gone with Clark to talk to Lana...and the vampire had snapped and killed them?

Queasiness filled Lois' stomach.

She'd kill her.

She'd kill the Lang if she'd hurt her cousin!

"That damned Blade." The door to the building next to the alley she was hiding in opened, and a couple of men came out, busy complaining to themselves. "You'd think that a night club situated inside of a fucking _freezer_ would be harder to find!"

"And who's left with the cleanup?" His partner grumbled as well. "Us! We might be only humans but I think we should be given more important jobs than cleanup!"

"Don't complain about the boss, man." The first scolded. "If he gets word of it he'll never change us, and I don't plan on being a measly human forever."

"We'll be turned and then _we'll_ have familiars of our own." The second grinned. "But I'll change my name. Larry the Vampire doesn't sound too intimidating."

His friend laughed as they continued on.

Lois' eyes widened.

The rave in which that vampire in the hospital have been burnt to crisp...it'd happened in a night club somewhere in _this_ building!

She didn't even stop to think about it.

The brunette raced towards the back entrance.

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**Review?**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Blade**

Sequel to: House of Frost

Warning: attempted rape

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The sun was lowering, nearly fully set when Blade pulled up in his Olds in a low-end commercial district, junkie heaven. He climbed out, pulling an automatic rifle from the back seat, then headed into an alleyway. Before the good Dr. Jansen had let that dirtbag minion go he'd mentioned this place and as Blade made his way down the alley he was cautious, seeing mountains of trash, boarded up windows and overlapping layers of gang graffiti. A rat crouched on a trash dumpster, eyeing him curiously, not at all afraid, before deciding Blade wasn't worth its time and returning to gnaw on the dead pigeon in front of it.

Blade moved to the end of the alley, studying the graffiti-covered wall intently. He finally found what he was looking for, a design amongst the various gang-banger tags, this one looked like a post-modern hieroglyphic. He knew it wasn't a gang tag but a vampire marking, which meant that there was a safe-house nearby, a safe place vampires could go to if dawn was coming and they were too far from their own lair.

The hunter turned to attention to a building across the street called The Holliston Clinic, which was your basic inner-city blood-carter establishment where desperate transients parleyed their plasma into cash. In other words it was a blood bank. Yet this one was owned by vampires. There was one of those in every major city, and just like Domino's, they always delivered.

He crossed the street and entered, swinging his rifle around for all to see. "Get out. Now."

The potential donors scrambled for the exit.

Behind the counter, a male nurse whose name tag declared "TANAKA" reached for an alarm button.

Seeing this, Blade vaulted over the counter, aiming his rifle. "I know you're blood-running. Who's your sponsor?"

Tanaka gulped. "I don't know what you're-."

Blade backhanded him across the face hard enough to loosen his teeth. He then grabbed the man by his collar and shoved him through a doorway behind him, finding them in a supply room. There were supply cabinets, cots, and a number of locked refrigeration units. The vampire hunter fired into the door handle of one of the units, tearing it open to find the fridge stacked floor to ceiling with plastic packets of blood.

Behind his shades, his eyes narrowed. "How much are you shipping?"

"Bite me!" Tanaka snarled at him.

Opening fire, Blade swept his rifle around the room, shooting everything in sight. Glass cabinetry shattered, ampoules and other equipment went flying while Tanaka cowered, arm wrapped about his head.

Finally, Blade stopped shooting and leaned down towards Tanaka, placing the end of his rifle against the man's forehead smirking at the fact that the man looks like he's about to wet his pants. "I've got a message for your masters. Tell them the night's no longer safe for their kind." He then pulled his rifle back, satisfied as he eyed the red indentation mark left against his head from where the rifle's barrel had been pressed into Tanaka's skin.

Turning, the vampire hunter turned with a confident smirk.

Now all he had to do was wait and follow the little fish to the big ones.

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Having navigated through the meat-locker Lois had finally found the freezer and the secret latch that opened the back and let one into what had once been a rocking night club. But there was so much damage, especially from fire...it was going to take it a while to get back to its former glory. Ever the reporter, Lois began taking pictures of the place, flash bright and shocking in the dimness of the room. Blood caped the ground and there were splatters on the walls and columns. Her gaze went up to the balcony above which looked very much like a VIP section, and she took a couple of snaps of there as well. She didn't know exactly what she was looking for so she took pictures of everything, tried to get the feel of everything...tried to not wince when she stepped into a pile of blood that was fresh enough to squish beneath her.

"What is this, Tim?" A voice chuckled darkly. "Looks like we have ourselves a little lost lamb."

Lois gasped and turned around to see four men standing in the half-shadows.

"What are we going to do with her, Ralph?" A second sneered.

"I know a couple of things I want to do with her mouth." A third grabbed his junk.

"I call dibbs on her ass." The forth came towards her greedily.

Lois roundhouse kicked him back.

"FUCK!" The fourth cursed as he lay on the ground. "I'm going to make you pay you bitch!"

The other three men charged at her, and while Lois was good she wasn't _that_ good, finding herself tackled to the blood-covered ground.

"No!" She screamed, fighting. "STOP!"

The sound of laughter and zippers lowering caused her to feel like throwing up.

Suddenly one of the men screamed loudly.

The others let go of her, cursing.

Lois crawled away and turned on her back, weight on her elbows, eyes widening as she saw the forth man collapse to his knees, throat torn open.

And there, behind him, blood all over her mouth and cascading down the front of her face, was Chloe.

"Apparently vampire and human males aren't that different after all." She declared in disgust. "No means fucking _no_."

"We're familiars! We're on your side!" The third one yelled, yanking at the collar of his shirt to show a tattoo.

Chloe's lips curled as she moved to him rapidly, inhumanly, and then there were screams and blood spurting everywhere.

Lois watched in shocked horror.

The first two men had already taken off but Chloe went after them, and somewhere there were screams of agony until there was nothing but silence.

Lois stayed on the ground, eyeing the carcasses of the two men next to her, trying to understand what she'd just seen.

Chloe...was a vampire.

Chloe, her _baby cousin_, was a _vampire_!

The sound of dragging and grunting caused Lois to look up, her eyes filling with tears as the shock grew, seeing Chloe dragging the dead mens bodies back into the room, more bloodied and seeming to be having a little difficulty lugging their weight around by herself. Finally though, she arrived to where Lois was and threw the bodies on the ground, dragging the others so that they were in a pile. Without so much as looking at the brunette, Chloe disappeared for a moment before returning with what seemed like accelerant, and lit a match, causing the bodies to go up in flames. She added more accelerant when the intensity of the fire didn't seem enough for her, adding even more, and when the fire was a roaring blaze she threw the rest of the container into the flames, causing it to explode slightly.

Lois struggled to her feet, grabbing her things, not even bothering to try and wipe the blood from off of her as she eyed her cousin.

Chloe seemed to be sniffing the air.

Lois bit down on her bottom lip, wiping at her eyes furiously.

Chloe's head turned and she moved towards a charred spot on the farthest wall, taking in a deep whiff.

The fire was beginning to spread.

"Dammit." The blonde hissed to herself, running her hand over her hair. "I can't smell anything but blood."

A part of the ceiling began to darken from the flames below.

Chloe snarled and turned from the wall, shaking her head, pacing, not seeming to notice how dangerous the fire was becoming. "What now? This was my best lead!"

The ceiling began to catch on fire.

"Chloe." Shock beginning to wear off, frustration rose. "Chloe what happened to you? Was it Lana? Did she turn you?"

Chloe froze and turned to look at her with wide eyes. "You know about Lana? Does _she_ know you know?"

"No I-."

"Listen to me, Lana can't know you know, because even if she doesn't kill you herself, she'll tell Deacon, and he'll do it." Chloe stalked towards her, still covered in blood. "This isn't some little cover story for the Inquisitor, okay?" She yanked Lois' photo camera out of her hand and smashed it down on the ground, before kicking the remains into the growing inferno. "You need to get out of Metropolis."

"Hey!" Lois gasped at her photo camera before turning to Chloe. "I'm not going to run! I'm not scared!"

Inhumanly fast Chloe had her against the wall, hand on her throat and fangs elongated as she snarled at her. "You should be."

Lois stared her cousin in those eyes, which while different, were still those of her cousin's. "You won't hurt me."

Chloe eyed her before laughing darkly. "Am I the _only one_ who smells the burning flesh here?"

Lois raised her chin as much as she could with the grip on her. "You protected me. They were on 'your side'-whatever the hell that means-and you killed them anyway because they were going to hurt me."

Emotion flashed through Chloe's eyes before she pulled away, hissing. "Dammit Lois! Stop being so bullheaded all the time!"

"And you! Stop acting as if you didn't just _disappear_!" Lois snapped at her. "I thought you were dead!" Off the look Chloe gave her, she shrugged. "Deader."

Chloe shook her head. "You need to leave Metropolis, at least for the time being."

"I'm not going anywhere." Lois replied. "I'm fine, I spent last night in a church and-."

Chloe snorted. "A _church?_ You're lucky the _priest_ wasn't a vampire."

"Huh?" Lois brought her hand to the crucifix around her neck.

The blonde eyed it with a frown, coming up to Lois and wrapping her hand around the cross to prove a point. "Vampire 101: Crosses and running water don't do shit, forget what you've seen in movies. If you ever come up against a vampire your only friends are stake, silver, and sunlight, got that?"

Lois nodded, feeling a little silly for her previous actions although how was she supposed to know that religion really wasn't an issue for the undead? "So garlic and mirrors-?"

"Garlic. That actually works. Vampires go into anaphylactic shock when confronted with it. So either get them to somehow breathe in the dust or get it in liquid form somehow, like mace." Chloe responded, beginning to strip her clothes off. "Mirrors? I honestly have no idea. There aren't any mirrors in the House so I haven't tried it out."

"What about needing to be invited in before entering a place?" Lois asked, and then flinched at the look Chloe sent her. "Right. Myth. Obviously."

"Obviously." Chloe dropped her shirt and began to undo the buttons of her pants.

"What are you doing?" Lois finally asked as the pants fell to the ground and her cousin stepped out of them.

"It's called getting rid of the evidence." The blonde replied, grabbing her shirt and using the inside of the back to scrub the blood off of her face and neck. "Those guys were Deacon's familiars, and if he finds out that I was the one who killed them he'll..." She shivered, obviously unable to finish that thought. "I should have been more careful, but I went into bloodlust and I just started tearing open throats and forgot all about the blood spatter."

Lois watched as Chloe got as close to the blazing inferno as she dared, throwing her clothes into the fire.

"Come on." The blonde motioned with her head, heading towards the exit and once Lois had gotten out she left the door half ajar. "Fire needs air to grow."

Lois nodded, having known that.

"You need to leave." Chloe said once more, reaching down into her boots, pulling out a cellular. "I'm going to call someone to bring me clothes, and you don't want to be here when he arrives."

"Vampire." Lois guessed.

Chloe eyed her. "How did you know? About vampires?"

Lois sighed, lowering her gaze. "It's something I found out while trying to find you."

Guilt crossed Chloe's green orbs as she looked away. "It's not safe in Metropolis. Go to spend some time with dad. At least for the time being."

"What's going on, Chlo?" Lois pressed, dread filling her stomach. "Who's this Deacon guy you're so worried about?"

"Deacon Frost is the guy who will make you _beg_ for death if he catches wind of the fact that you know about vampires." Chloe responded harshly. "You need to get out of town and lay low."

"Is Clark Kent a vampire too?"

Chloe flinched.

That was all the answer Lois needed.

"He's the one you're going to call, isn't he?" The brunette ran her hand over her head. "So what happened? How were you two...changed? Did Lana go on a biting frenzy or something?"

Once again Chloe's silence was enough of an answer.

"I'm going to kill her." Lois hissed to herself, protective fury building inside of her as her suspicions were confirmed. "I'm going to that fucking sorority house and I'm going to set the place on fire! In the middle of the day!"

"Don't be stupid. Even if the vampires inside are incapable of doing things in the daylight Deacon has human familiars who are all over the place guarding it during the day. You'd be killed in an instance." Chloe snapped at her. "You need to get out of here, lay low in Smallville, and when it's safe again I'll come there."

"No." Lois reached out and grabbed her cousin's wrist, refusing to let go. "I can help."

"I doubt it." Chloe snorted.

"Something's obviously going down, and you're trying to do something about it." Lois replied. "But you have daylight impairment. I don't. I can go around during the day to figure things out that you need me to and you can work the night shifts while I'm in a safe house somewhere surrounded with garlic and silver. And UV lights."

Chloe's gaze lowered and she bit the inside of her cheek before shaking her head. "No."

"You don't have a choice." Lois replied. "I can help."

"Unless you know the address of the Vampire Hunter I'm looking for, then you're no use to me. Only a hindrance." The blonde replied coldly.

Lois flinched at the tone, before raising her chin. "He wouldn't be African American with a leather fetish, would he?"

Chloe's eyes widened. "You've seen Blade?"

Lois smirked as she patted her bag, wherein her (thankfully) intact video camera was. "Even better."

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Blade had waited in his Olds until Tanaka had torn out of his workplace, the vampire hunter listening on his cell-pone scanner as Tanaka dialed somehow on his cellular as she got into his own car. While trailing the minion in his Olds, Blade had listened as the human called a number that at first only gave one of those automated 'the number you are calling...' answers, but once he identified himself and his pin number a 'real' person had come on and listened as he told her what had happened. The person on the other side sounded like a young woman, who listened to Tanaka's story before asking why he was calling the 'Branch House' when obviously this was a 'Main House' situation. That was when Blade realized that there were Branch Houses also. He hadn't known that before and it intrigued him.

In the end the girl told Tanaka to come to the Branch House as Deacon Frost was supposed to make an appearance there at a party they were having.

Blade followed behind the oblivious familiar until he entered the Metropolis University Campus, parking in front of the Tri-Psi Sorority House, a loud party already underway. The familiar rushed out of his car and into the sorority house.

Now that Blade thought about it, Sorority Houses as a vampire dwelling made perfect sense. One could draw in easy prey with a house filled with beautiful women. You could also find familiars that way. His gaze scanned the building, finding by the sign that stated Tri-Psi, the symbol he'd been looking for. It was the same glyph that'd been tattooed on Tanaka's neck. The sign of the House of Frost. And it looked as if he'd hit the pay-dirt because the place was crawling with bloodsuckers. He could tell by the way they moved, the way they _smelt_. Of course there were a lot of humans there as well, drunken and having a good time and _stupid_, laughing with those who only wanted to snack on them. They were all dressed up in outfits, so obviously this was so sort of costume party, and Blade figured that could help him fit in until he killed his first leech.

He reached into the back seat and retrieved his sword and a satchel. The vampire hunter snapped open his shotgun and loaded it before finally sliding out of the Olds, making his way towards the Tri-Psi sorority house, letting his shotgun fall within the folds of his long coat to keep it hidden as he crossed the street.

Kicking the front door open, ignoring the party going on outside, Blade entered the sorority house, looking around. The inside was filled with revelry and laughter, seeming to almost have been converted into a strip-club look, with girls in different provocative costumes dancing erotically. The place was dimly lit, air thick with cigarette smoke and weed, everyone with a drink or two in their hands. On tables and desks the best looking of the girls, dressed even more provocatively than the others, writhed to the music, giggling coquettishly to the drunken men.

The girls were vampires.

They all were.

Blade was about to whip out his shotgun when he noticed Tanaka hurrying up the stairs, and he snarled as he removed his hand from the hilt and went after the familiar.

He failed to notice one of the main dancers, a petite half-asian beauty with green eyes and a catwoman getup freeze when she saw him, stopping her dance routine to eye him with narrowed eyes.

On the second story Blade headed past the bathroom, following the stink of fear Tanaka left behind him, which led toward the end of the hall, to a door which was marked "Buffy Sanders". A drunk college kid stepped out from one of the rooms in front of him, and before he could say anything Blade punched him, knocking him unconscious. Without breaking stride he continued on and kicked in the door, causing it to swing open violently and hit the other side of the wall, startling the two occupants in the room, Tanaka, and a beautiful blonde vampire.

Tanaka spun around, startled, trying to throw a punch.

Blade trapped Tanaka's arm, levering the man up and over, causing him to crash into the wall, disorienting the human before pulling out his shotgun and aiming it at the vampire before she could even react to his entrance. "Where's Frost?"

She backed up against the wall, not at all intimidating despite the devil's costume she wore.

Sensing movement behind him, Blade turned and fired, shooting Tanaka in the forehead as the familiar reached for his handgun. The shot blew the human's head into little tiny pieces.

No one seemed to hear the gunshot over the sound of the party.

They probably didn't hear her scream either. "Deacon!"

"Congratulations, Daywalker." A voice declared.

Blade's eyes narrowed. "Frost?"

On the large computer screen, Deacon Frost could be seen by a large pool, wearing a hands-free communication headset, grinning at him. "In the flesh, Blade. I understand you've been looking for me." He chuckled. "I'm flattered."

Blade's eyes narrowed on the screen, yet kept his shotgun aimed at the vampire in the room with him.

Onscreen, Frost settled into his chair, obviously enjoying this game of cat and mouse. "You're quick, Blade, I'll give you that. In the space of an hour you've crossed my familiar, destroyed a blood bank...and now you're in one of my Branches terrorizing its cute little supervisor, Buffy."

"Deacon, _help me_!" Buffy whimpered.

"You're history babe." Deacon replied with little to no sympathy before turning to Blade. "Round one to you."

He then clicked off, the line going dead.

Blade yanked his blade out and turned to Buffy, slamming it through her stomach and pinning her to the wall.

The blonde howled in agony, trying to jerk it out of the wall and thus her, but it was embedded too deep. "HELP!" She screamed, spitting out blood. "SOMEONE HELP ME!"

"What was that?" Blade mocked as he tossed his satchel on the desk, opening it and pulling out a hand-held UV lamp hooked up to a nine-volt batter. "I can't hear you over Enrique Iglesias."

Buffy eyed the device fearfully, forgetting about the sword through her stomach for a second. "W-what is that?"

"A sun lamp." The Daywalker declared. "We're gonna play twenty questions. Depending on your answers, you might get to have yourself a tanning session." He flashed his pearly whites. "You probably miss a good tan."

Buffy gulped, shaking her head. "I won't say anything."

Blade turned on the lamp, watching her as the vampire howled when the harsh light fell upon her. He then flicked the light off.

Buffy growled, body smoking profusely, desperately yanking at the hilt of the sword holding her immobile. She was a very beautiful vampire, but even that second's exposure to the UV ray lights had left her face blistered like a plague victim's.

Blade turned the light on once more.

She shrieked, her body smoking.

He turned it off.

"I don't know anything!" She cried, her hair beginning to fall off in clumps on the ground. "All I know is that we were told to get ready for something big! That's all I know!"

"Get ready for _what_?" Blade pressed. "He must have given you a clue."

Buffy hesitated.

Blade turned on the lamp for a longer time.

The vampire thrashed, covering her face. Her hands blackened, the skin sizzling away to expose the finger bones beneath.

The Daywalker finally turned off the lamp. "What is Deacon planning?"

"I don't _know_!" She whined loudly, hiccuping through her sobs. "But it has something to do with the House of Erebus! Deacon says that he's going to show the superiority of halfbloods! Whatever he's doing is going to both demolish that House _and_ elevate ours!"Her skin was blackened, nearly crispy. "That's all I know! I _swear_!"

"I believe you." And with that he turned on the light and left it on.

Buffy's screams were muffled by the sound of David Guetta.

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"He's upstairs." Lana turned to Quinn, eyeing the stump that was his hand. "I told you I'd give you a call if he ever showed up around here. He's alone and clearly outnumbered. You can take him to Deacon after giving him some payback for what he did to you in the rave the other night."

Deacon's second in command smirked at her. "Good girls get rewarded."

She smirked, watching him, Mercury, and some other of Deacon's elite guard heading up the stairs towards the room. Deacon had a price out for the Daywalker, wanting him alive but not necessarily _in good health_, and she knew Quinn was going to give the vampire hunter a beating to an inch of his life.

With this aspect of her job done, Lana turned back to her own true job, smiling at the guy she had lined up for familiar.

Once the Daywalker was dealt with they wouldn't have to worry anymore, they could live the night as they had been created to.

Her lips curled in a smile, and she beckoned the drunk frat boy over. "How about we go to your place?"

The gorgeous guy smirked and nodded, grabbing her hand and eagerly dragging her out of the sorority house, obviously anticipating the best sex of his life.

Lana grinned, betraying a flash of fang he never saw in his haste to take her to his car.

Oh, this was _so easy_.

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**Review?**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Blade**

Sequel to: House of Frost

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Sneaking into her old workplace was easier than Karen had expected, everyone so busy they didn't have time to really pay attention whoever was going wherever if they acted as if they belonged there. She entered her office and found it just as she'd left it, hoping that whoever was covering up the morgue incident hadn't thought to check see if Curtis had brought her any samples of the blood from the vampire they'd unknowingly brought into their midst. Karen hurried to the small fridge and checked the different samples before smiling brightly, retrieving the sample Curtis had brought for her. It wasn't fresh but it would do.

Reaching into her bag she pulled out a container that would keep the sample cool and then slipped it back into her bag and somehow managed to get out of the hospital without anyone recognizing her. It was...well...incredible to say the least. How could the hospital's security be so lax? Especially after the attack? Other than the cops working for the vampires...were people in the hospital doing the same? Were there familiars amongst her old colleagues?

Shaking her head, she hailed a taxi and headed towards the bus station. She was getting out on the first bus to Wisconsin to visit an old friend there with a lab she could borrow, and then she was going to work on the blood in her possession and she'd find a cure.

She had to.

Otherwise she'd buy that gun and listen to Whistler's advice.

Direct sunlight was already hurting her eyes.

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Blade hardly had time to turn when the door was kicked open, Quinn, the bastard, and his punk ass vampire friends storming into the room, sneering. The Vampire Hunter had known that Deacon would send his minions to come after him, but he hadn't expected them to arrive so quickly. Either they'd been close to the Sorority House when Deacon had gotten into contact with them, or someone else in the party had recognized him and called them. Either way he was severely outnumbered in a Vampire House. Not that he was worried. He'd taken down tougher places than a _sorority_.

"Hola, amigo." Quinn grinned, obviously self-assured. "Remember me?"

Blade triggered the UV light but Mercury ducked under it, ripping it from his hands. He then reached for his rifle as the vampires converged on him like quicksilver, and while he was strong he realized that there were a couple more than he could take on his lonesome.

The vampires flung Blade against the wall, pinning him.

"You took my arm, Blade." Quinn declared. "But that's okay, I'm growing a new one." He lifted his arm, which was just a skeletal forearm which had grown from the stump. It had cartilage, sinew and muscle, but no flesh as yet. He'd need many more feedings before his body fully regenerated itself. "Nice, huh? Think I'll ever play the piano again?" He shrugged. "You can slice him, you can dice him, and the man just keeps on coming."

Blade struggled violently, but Quinn was upon him, pounding his fist into Blade over and over and over again, obviously enjoying paying him back for setting him on fire and severing his arm. When it was finally over, the vampire stepped back, winded. Blade hung his head down, gasping, wincing, every breath sending a red hot poker through his gut. He hated it. Hated a moment's weakness in front of these bloodsuckers. Hated how they would relish it.

Quinn grabbed hold of Blade's jaw, forcing his head up. "Stay with me, sweetness, I'm not through with you yet." He pulled Blade's jacket open, seeing the bandoleer of mahogany stakes and tugging one out as he admired it. "Teak. Nice craftsmanship." He turned to look at the others. "Now here's a man who takes his job just a little too seriously, don't you think?" He turned back to Blade, grinning. "Which reminds me, Blade. I think I owe you one." Quick as lightning he stabbed the stake into Blade's shoulder, causing the Daywalker to cry out in pain despite his desire to remain silent. "Actually, if you want to get technical...I owe you _two_."

"Get it out of your system quick, Quinn." Mercury growled. "Deacon wants him _alive_."

Blade's eyes narrowed at that.

Why would Deacon want him alive?

That didn't make any sense.

"He didn't say he couldn't be a little bit _damaged_." Quinn snapped at Mercury, obviously too consumed with getting revenge to really care about angering Deacon Frost a little.

_"I received the distress signal_." Whistler's voice came from the micro ear-coil radio receiver in Blade's ear. "_I'm almost there."_

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_"_What is she doing here?" Kal frowned, eyes narrowed on Lois as he arrived, a dufflebag slung over his shoulder.

"She was here when I got here." Chloe muttered, going to the bag and unzipping it, pulling out a skirt that was _not_ hers. The thing was short and skimpy and terribly thin. "What is this?"

"You asked for clothes." Kal dropped the bag in annoyance. "I didn't have to bring them for you." He reached out and grabbed her arm, yanking her closer to him. "What. Is. She. Doing. Here?"

"I told you, she was here when I got here." Chloe narrowed her eyes at him.

"Hey! 'She' is right here!" Lois glared, coming towards them. "And stop manhandling my lil cousin Smallville!"

Kal turned his glare on Lois and his eyes flashed red as his lips pulled back in a snarl. "Do not refer to me as such _ever_ again if you wish to live."

Lois opened her mouth.

Chloe shut her with a look before returning her glare to Kal. "Is there a reason for the rough treatment?"

"Other than the fact that you've put our plan at risk by doing something stupid like this?" Kal wanted to know, lips pulled back in a snarl. "What do you think Deacon's going to do if he finds out that his own little advanced talent murdered his familiars?"

"He _won't_ find out." Chloe responded and then gasped as she was flung against the wall hard enough to cause it to shake.

In seconds Kal had super-speeded towards her, pinning her to the wall, his eyes dark and on her. "I won't have you doing something _stupid _and getting us _both_ killed." He leaned in and sniffed, making a face of disgust. "You need to bathe, the blood can't cover the stench of the Talos' Cabana boy."

Chloe felt shame fill her, horrified that he would bring that up, especially in front of Lois. "Stop it."

"I guess that means you've now been with _two_ men in your whole life...or is this just the first male of your unlife?" Kal taunted, something dark and ugly in his blue eyes. "Seeing as Frost seems to like watching...your number will probably grow, especially when you don't even _resist_."

Snarling, Chloe kneed him, catching him unawares as she jumped him, the both tumbling to the ground, fighting. She clawed him. He threw his weight around until finally he straddled her on the floor, both panting, both angry, glaring deep into the other's eyes.

Kal's breaths were sharp, his eyes a red so intense you could hardly see any black of the pupil.

Chloe's breaths were fast, her chest heaving with each intake of breath, one strap of her bra completely broken.

They stared deep into each other's eyes.

Kal's fangs grew, the thumbs of the hands pinning her wrists to the floor caressing her skin.

Chloe looked up at him, confused, aroused.

Suddenly something broke against the back of Kal's head, causing him to snarl and turn to growl at Lois, who was holding a piece of piping, eyes widening in shock to see that a pipe to the head had had no affect on the vampire other than to royally piss him off.

Using his distraction against him, Chloe freed herself from Kal's hold and turned them around so that she was straddling him, pinning his wrists to the floor, her fangs out as she hissed warningly at him.

Kal's gazed turned to her as he hissed back viciously, but he wasn't fighting her, and...and...

...and as Chloe straddled him so intimately she suddenly realized _why_ that vampirette had had to _limp_ away.

Kal was a _monster_!

He almost seemed to be able to read her mind, because the viciousness eased up out his expression and he instead smirked in manly smugness as he gave a provocative thrust of his lean hips, rubbing his monstrous hardon against her core over the material of her underwear. "Wanna hear what my special name for you is?"

"_No_." His voice was enough to bring her back to the present and she scrambled off of him, unable to believe what exactly had happened between them. This was _Clark_! Or, well, _Kal_. But _still_! This was-no way-she would _not_-!

Grabbing the bag he'd brought, Chloe slipped on the skanky skirt, a little relieved to see the longish, more decent shirt, pulling that on as well.

"So...when did you two start sleeping together?" Lois decided to finally speak, still holding onto the broken pipe.

"We're not, yet." Kal smirked at her as he rose from the floor, seeming to forget that he'd been about to slaughter the brunette moments before.

"We're_ not_. _Ever._" Chloe corrected, sending him a glare for that. "I am _not_ one of your skanky vampirettes."

"Someone's jealous." Kal smirked.

She growled at him. "Believe me, you're the _last_ person I'd be jealous over."

His eyes narrowed, his smirk melting into a dark scowl. "What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

"Look, it's stupid to fight between us." Chloe changed the subject, trying to calm down and forget what had happened between her and Kal moments ago. "Lois has a video of the Daywalker."

Kal turned to look at Lois. "How did you manage that?"

Chloe answered for her. "Remember when Blade burnt Quinn and then severed his arm?"

Kal turned towards her, chuckling. "You're saying she was there when that happened and got it all on tape?" His amusement then darkened. "If we can study that tape not only would we have a visual of the Daywalker, but I could study his fighting style and we'd be better prepared if he decides to fight us instead of listen to what we have to say."

"Good." Chloe nodded.

Lois looked between the two of them before sighing and reaching into her bag to pull out the video camera.

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As Quinn reached for another stake, Blade started to laugh, causing the vampire to pause and eye him.

"What's so funny, bright eyes?"

Blade smirked, bloody and beaten but refusing to show any pain. "I'm expecting some company."

"_Get down_!" Whistler's voice in his ear piece yelled.

Blade kicked his feet out, sending Quinn flying backwards, before tearing free of the vamps holding him and diving to the ground just as the whole wall of the sorority house exploded inwards, knocking Quinn and the rest of his cronies to feet. Down below Blade could hear screams as he got to his feet and raced to the smoking opening, jumping down, landing in a roll on the grass below as the vampires tried for him.

Below, by his vehicle, Whistler stood, brandishing his cane in one hand and an automatic rifle in the other, opening fire on the vampires who raced out at them.

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"From what I've managed to find out, this Daywalker character is a human-vampire hybrid." Kal declared after having viewed the video of the fight between Blade and Quinn a couple of times, and having confiscated the video for further analysis. "His mother was attacked by a vampire while she was pregnant. Ultimately she died, but her unborn child lived, although he'd gone through certain genetic changes while in the womb due to the vampire venom that'd been in his mother's system."

"Makes sense." Chloe whispered to herself from where she was pulling self-consciously at the ends of the ridiculously short skirt Kal had brought for her.

"He works with a human hunter who found him when he was thirteen and living on the streets feeding off of the homeless." Kal declared. "Apparently the Thirst had manifested itself at puberty, and while this Whistler character almost killed Blade at first because he thought he was one of us, he realized he was a Daywalker, a half-breed, and instead took him in and has since then been his mentor."

"Where are you getting all this information?" Chloe wanted to know, confused. She'd tried her best to get information out of both Crease and Deacon and neither of them had been willing to open up in the least bit with her concerning the Daywalker.

Kal sent her a self-assured smirk. "Women have this habit of _pillow talk_."

Chloe paused, eyebrow raised, intrigued. "Are you telling me that your whoring about has been about information getting?"

"Not _all_ of my conquests have been about acquiring information, but yes, I _have_ seduced quite a few in Frost's inner circle and done my own little...interrogative techniques...on them." Kal smirked deeper. "So, as I was saying, from what I've heard this Blade guy is supposedly a one in a billion anomaly. He can withstand sunlight, garlic, even silver. But he still has the Thirst."

Chloe felt somewhat relieved that he had _some_ sort of weakness. "So he must feed."

"No." Kal shook his head. "According to Mercury Blade has this human hemoglobin substitute serum he uses instead of blood. It's an injection of some sort that isn't pleasant in the least bit, and doesn't fill or do half of the things blood does for us, but it helps him control the Thirst a little. But our spies are saying that the serum is beginning to wear off, his body is beginning to reject it or get used to it or something, we're not sure because we don't exactly have an 'in' amongst the hunters."

"What happens if he doesn't take the serum?" Lois wanted to know, eyes narrowed.

"The Thirst overcomes him, just like the rest of us." Kal replied, seeming not to have much of a problem with her anymore. "It's not something he can control, and from what Mercury knew Whistler was trying to find a _cure_ for vampirism but all of his efforts have been fruitless."

"_Cure_?" Chloe whispered, eyes widening in surprise. "Is that even possible?"

Kal shrugged, not seeming to really care.

Lois looked between them, caring enough for the three of them. "My friend, Karen, she's a hematologist and Blade took her. I doubt this Whistler guy is a genius when it comes to diseases of the blood, _and_ I doubt he would have the state of the art equipment and such that she can get access to. There's things he could have missed. If anyone can find a cure to this it would be her."

"Who says we _need_ a cure?" Kal snapped at her, eyes flashing red.

Lois' eyes narrowed. "Don't you want to be human again?"

Kal's lips twisted in dark amusement. "I've never _been_ human."

Seeing the questions on Lois' face, Chloe quickly spoke, changing the subject before it got too dangerously close to their secrets. "There are many more important Houses and Heads, why exactly are Blade and Whistler focusing on Deacon?"

Kal continued to glare at Lois before finally turning his gaze on Chloe. "From what I understood, Frost tortured and then killed Whistler's family while making him watch the whole thing without being able to help them. He toyed with them, made Whistler decide the order in which they died."

Lois gasped, eyes teary, hand to her mouth. "How horrible!"

"How did Whistler escape?" Chloe couldn't understand.

"He didn't." Kal replied. "Frost let him live, but injured him badly, the guy hasn't ever fully recovered, mentally _or_ physically."

Chloe nodded, everything falling into place for her now. "And now Whistler is using Blade to exact his revenge."

"Exactly." Kal smirked, before looking down when his phone rang, frowning. "It's Frost."

Chloe turned to Lois and placed a hand to her lips in warning.

Lois nodded silently.

"El." Kal answered the call, face emotionless. "Yes, she's with me." His gaze went to Chloe. "A hunt." His eyes narrowed. "When did this happen?" His lips twitched although his voice remained emotionlessly. "Did he now?" Kal nodded. "Of course. As soon as we're finished." He then hung up and turned to Chloe. "The Daywalker and Whistler hit the Tri-Psi Sorority, blew it up pretty bad, Buffy and many of the girls and students there got ghosted."

"Again...nothing on my police scanner." Lois frowned, reaching into her bag and shaking the device, which was on. "This Frost guy must have half the city bought."

"Well _obviously_." Kal replied with a sneer before shaking his head and turning to Chloe, lips twitching in dark amusement. "Somehow, during the fight, the Daywalker took Quinn's hand."

Chloe couldn't help but laugh. "_Again_?"

"Again." Kal grinned brightly, eyes twinkling in laughter.

Suddenly Chloe's eyes widened. "Wait, did you say the _Tri-Psi_ Sorority? Isn't that _Lana's_ Sorority?"

"Who cares?" Kal wanted to know.

"_I_ do, and so should you!" Chloe snapped at him. "Lana is our _friend_!"

"Some friend." Lois snarled. "Look what she did to you."

"Case in point." Kal replied, motioning to Lois. "The breather is right."

"The _breather_?" Lois scoffed.

"You're only angry because Lana forced something on you and your pride can't take it." Chloe snapped at Kal, pissed off at his nonchalance at the thought of their friend, his ex, being killed by the Daywalker. "I forced this on you too if you don't remember."

"No. You didn't force anything on me." Kal replied. "You _freed_ me. If you hadn't done what you had he would have killed himself and thus killed me too." He paused. "You _saved_ me."

Chloe looked up at him in shock.

"Look, it's not important. We need to go back." Kal reached for Chloe's arm. "You never did look over the documents they had or explained the things to Talos like you were supposed to. Frost wants you there now."

Chloe winced, dreading the thought of being in her sire's presence, knowing what was waiting for her.

Kal's grasp on her arm tightened. "Let's go."

"Wait, what about me? What do I do?" Lois asked, pushing away from the wall she'd been leaning on.

"You won't be any good to me dead." Chloe declared. "Go to Smallville, to my father, and from there try to find out from your sources at the Inquirer about anything Daywalker. There must be a list of mysterious deaths or killings that have been attributed to other causes. Find them, and see if you can somehow get based on the locations of the slayings a general idea of where his headquarters are."

"And if you find it?" Lois frowned. "What do you plan on doing?"

Chloe and Kal shared a look before the male turned to Lois. "Then we pay the Daywalker a little unofficial visit."

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Deacon stood at the window, looking out at the glimmering cityscape before him, burning on the inside at how fucked this whole night had turned out. Not only had Talos put him behind on the Genesis Project by mixing the seed of her worthless little cabana boy with his precious little Daywalker, but Blade had also managed to destroy one of Deacon's best recruiting houses, kill some of his best looking vampire girls, taken Quinn's hand _yet again_...and had managed to escape with his annoying human mentor. And what was worse? All of this was happening during Danica Talos' visit, and she was a dangerous little bitch who went for the neck whenever she perceived any sign of weakness.

Turning away from the window, Deacon gazed at Quinn, Mercury, and the few other vampires who'd survived the massacre of the Tri-Psi Sorority House excluding Lana Lang, who'd called in a couple of minutes to report a new applicant for familiar...and had then found out about the destruction of the Sorority House.

Quinn cradled the amputated stump on his newly grown arm. "He took my fucking hand! Again!"

"You seem to be in the habit of losing them fairly often, Quinn." Deacon replied, not able to conjure the littlest bit of sympathy. "Maybe the amputee lifestyle just suits you."

The others vampires laughed.

Quinn stared them into silence before turning to Deacon. "We need to find him, tonight."

Deacon clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Down, boy. Blade's not going anywhere. I promise. Right now, though, we've more pressing business." He smirked, glad that at least _something_ would be going his way tonight. "It's time Dragonetti paid the piper."

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**Review?**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Blade**

Sequel to: House of Frost

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"Rise and shine, little wing." Deacon grinned at Dragonetti, whose face was covered by a black condemned man's hood. "The sun's about to rise and it's promising to be the beginning of a bright new day." He smirked, standing in the Burning Grounds right before dawn, dressed from head to toe in a black motorcycle suit, which consisted of boots, gloves, and a visored helmet which he held tucked under one arm.

Mercury and Quinn were standing nearby, similarly dressed.

The Burning Grounds was a stretch of rocky coastline tucked away in a secluded cove, which was exactly why vampires chose to use this place for situations like this.

Dragonetti was stripped bare, chained. "What is this? Where am I?"

Deacon stepped forwards, pulling Dragonetti's hood off.

Dragonetti stared at his surrounding, clearly horrified as he realized what his fate was to be.

"When was the last time you stopped to appreciate a sunrise, Dragonetti?" Deacon taunted, kneeling down in front of the fallen Head of the House of Erebus. "Three, four hundred years?" He checked his watch before looking at the ocean, where on the horizon a sliver of gold slowly appeared. "How do you like that? Right on time."

Dragonetti snarled at him. "The other elders will never let you get away with this!"

Just as he muttered these assured words, the twelve vampire sub-head elders of the House of Erebus emerged from their hiding places, forming a circle around Dragonetti. They wore business suits, gloves, along with high-tech sun masks that protected their faces from the light's lethal rays. They stared at Dragonetti, a silent jury.

His face darkened, anger and betrayal in his every feature, but there was obviously desperation in his eyes too, and Deacon relished the sight.

Dragonetti spoke in the secret tongue, which truly wasn't that secret anymore. "Don't you see, you fools? He'll betray you too! He's planning on invoking LaMagra himself!"

The sub-heads of the House of Erebus just smiled, shaking their heads.

Deacon smirked, amused by their stupidity. "The wheel turns, old fang. Guess you just got a little too long in the tooth."

Dragonettis cries were cut short as Deacon forced the older vampire's mouth open, ripping out his fangs with his bare hands, causing Dragonetti to gurgle and shriek, sounding like a dying animal and not the mighty and proud vampire he'd once been.

Deacon turned to face the Twelve, his eyes bright with victory as he stood and moved away from Dragonetti, putting on his motorcycle helmet, an action copied by Mercury and Quinn.

Behind them, Dragonetti struggled furiously against his chain to no avail as the first faint rays of daylight fell upon him, channeled inwards by the natural formation of the cove. The Head of the House of Erebus howled, his skin sizzling and releasing smoke through his pores before suddenly he caught on fire like paper beneath a magnifying glass. He thrashed about as his flesh started to run from his body.

The vampire elders watched, impassive, protected by their masks-when suddenly twelve figures rose up behind them, clad in bike helmets and black leather, just like Deacon. Apparently Kal had managed to get Chloe to the House before sunrise and get the rest of Deacon's men here as previously planned. The twelve men, Kal included, each grabbed one of the elders in a strangle hold, ripping their masks off.

"Dragonetti was right." Deacon smirked, seeing the fear on their faces. "You were fools to trust me." He flipped down the visor of his helmet as the red sun rose in all it's fiery glory.

One by one, the vampire elders' heads caught on fire, skull-flesh sizzling away, burning down the line of them in successively burning intensity until all twelve exploded in a conflagration of blinding white light.

Deacon and his minions were blown off of their feet by the sheer intensity of the occult blast-a blast that sent the skeletal bodies of the Elders slamming into the rock wall.

When it was all over, Deacon picked himself back up, the only thing left of Dragonetti and the others thirteen shadow silhouette permanently etched onto the rock's surface, just like the bombing victims of Hiroshima.

The tallest of his minions, no doubt Kal, approached him. "Your orders?"

Deacon eyed the black visor hiding his face from him. "Chloe?"

"With Danica Talos, going over the documents she requested she keep an eye on."

Deacon nodded, going closer to his minion. "Go back to the House and keep an eye on her. I don't want that filth of Talos' or any other vampire near her, do you understand? If someone presses an issue of interest towards her, be he from my House or hers, you are to decimate him. No one touches her, if anyone does, you're to treat him with _extreme_ prejudice. Do you understand my meaning?"

Kal paused, just seeming to look at him, before nodding. "Understood."

With that he turned and headed towards his Ducati.

Deacon watched him go before turning to look at the thirteen shadows. "Mercury, I need you to find Blade. It's time he and I had a little talk."

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In her friend's private lab, Karen was working on empty yet refusing to let up for a nap. She was surrounded by a host of new medical equipment, from centrifuges to genetic sequencers and beyond, and already she'd made real progress. She'd brainstormed for hours, going over everything Whistler had told her about vampirism, and with the blood sample she had she'd been able to perform some experiments. During those experiments she'd realized the importance of sodium citrate, which was an anti-coagulant. Doctors used it to treat blood-clot sometimes, and from what she'd observed vampire blood was thinner than humans, so when she'd introduced some of the anti-coagulant into a sample of vampire blood there'd been an immediate reaction. The vampire blood cells had turned black before bubbling violently and finally exploding in a fine mist which burst apart the glass lens of the scope.

She was thrilled with the results, sure that Whistler had yet to make the connection, imagining the uses the vampire hunters could have for this discovery. Just imagine what a dash of it would do to Blade's already fierce sword!

Talking about Blade...she turned to look at the vial of his blood that she'd nicked from Whistler's own private supply. She doubted either of them would be happy when they found out what she'd done, but she didn't have much time left, and knew that whenever she was able to find a cure they'd be forced to forgive her.

With that assurance, she took a sip of her seemingly hundredth cup of coffee and continued to work.

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Making his way through China Town, the streets lined with vending stalls, Blade passed merchants peddling exotic vegetable and cheap curious, butcher shops with rows of roast ducks in the window. Tyro gang-bangers lounged at the entrance to an arcade, slinging insults and harassments to the passerby's yet going silent as he passed them, exchanging uneasy looks, not knowing who or what he was but obviously feeling that predatory vibe he naturally gave off. Everyone felt it. Even though the streets were crowded everyone seemed to always make way for him, avoiding eye-contact.

He turned into a dark alley, ducking into the doorway of a hole-in-the-wall herbalist shop.

A bell atop the door jingled, announcing his arrival into the dusty, cave-like room filled with baskets and bottle-lined shelves featuring things like "Toad Spleen Extract" and "Barking Deer Wine". Joss sticks burned, sending wispy tendrils of incense into the air of the dimly lit place.

At the back of the shop, an elderly chinese man in a cardigan sat in front of a battered television, watching a boxing match and eating a bowl of litchi fruit.

On a nearby counter a spider monkey watched attentively.

"How's it going, Kam?" Blade announced his presence.

The elderly man sent a glance towards the calender on the wall closest to him before returning his gaze to the television. "You're a week early."

"I was in the neighborhood."

Setting down his fruit bowl, Kam stood and motioned for Blade to follow him through a curtain into a back room. Once they were in the secluded area he handed the Daywalker a leather valise that when opened, was lined with tiny ampoules of scarlet-colored serum.

Blade pulled one out, holding it up to the light reflectively. "Whistler says I'm building up a resistance to it."

The elderly man sighed. "I was afraid that might happen."

Blade put the ampoule back into the pack. "Maybe it's time to start exploring other alternatives."

There was a moment's silence before Kam spoke up. "There's only one alternative to the serum."

Blade nodded.

They both knew what the 'alternative' was.

Blade closed the valise and tucked it into his jacket. "Thanks, Kam." He headed back through the curtains and headed towards the entrance, exiting into the busy street and passing a woman talking on a cellular.

"Don't react, Blade." Her voice stopped him, and he went to look at a discarded paper, wondering who she was.

"Do you know how hard it was to locate you?" The woman sounded accusing as she looked through some "Weeping Baboon Testicles" packets.

He didn't believe that merited an answer.

"How is Karen? Is she okay? Is she alive?"

His eyes widened slightly behind his dark shades. "You're from the morgue."

"How _is_ she?" The woman pressed.

"I did the best I could to help her, she's gone into hiding." He replied, not seeing that she deserved anything more than that, and wary that she'd been able to find him so easily and at this place in particular.

"I have a message for you." The brunette picked up a package of something or the other, pretending to examine it. "There's an old abandoned church off Exton, be there tonight if you want to know exactly what Deacon Frost has been up to."

He froze at that name, almost tempted to turn around and shake more information out of her, but if she was being this suspicious obviously she was being followed. "You're a familiar."

"No. I'm not. But I know someone who has information that _you need_, buddy." She replied cheekily. "And it's not like you're getting anywhere on your own except for pissing him off more than he already was."

"How do I know it's not a trap?" Blade wanted to know.

"You don't. But it's the only option you've got." She replied before walking away, pretending to still be talking on her phone for appearance's sake.

"_Blade_..." his name was whispered in the wind, immediately capturing his attention as the woman disappeared into the crowd.

Blade spun, scanning his surroundings.

"_Blade_." Again the taunting voice called him.

Blade's gaze finally settled on a man sitting on a bench in the deep shade a bit away, his face obscured by the Chinese newspaper he was reading. There was a little girl sitting stiffly besides him, a look of pure terror written upon her face.

The Daywalker headed towards the male.

"Afternoon, Blade." The man lowered his newspaper, revealing none other than Deacon Frost. He was wearing sunglasses, but otherwise seemed unprotected by the sun.

Blade reached for his .454 but Frost's hand rested on the back of the girl's neck.

"Easy." The vampire's claws extended, caressing the flesh beneath her chin. "Wouldn't want our little friend here to wind up on the back of a milk carton, would we?"

Blade reluctantly lowered his hand.

Frost smiled, taking in a deep breath of air, savoring it. "Beautiful day, isn't it?"

Blade couldn't keep the confusion off his face. "How can you be out here?"

"I dabble in pharmaceuticals, medical research." Frost smirked, self-satisfied. "We've developed a type of sun-blocker using octyle salicylate, amongst a few other things."

Now that he looked closer, Blade realized that Frost was wearing a translucent lotion on his face.

The vampire touched a finger to his cheek, rubbing some of the lotion between his fingers. "It's not very effective in direct sunlight, yet it's a start. The goal, of course, is to be like you, 'the Daywalker'."

"I don't buy it." Blade scoffed.

"Why not?" Frost seemed quite amused. "The future of our race runs through your bloodstream. You've got the best of both worlds, Blade. All of our strengths and none of our weaknesses."

"Maybe I don't see it that way." The vampire hunter grunted, disconcerted with being faced with a vampire in broad daylight.

"Oh, so it's back to pretending we're human again, is it?" Frost taunted, that abominable smirk still tilting his lips. "Spare me the Uncle Tom routine. You can't keep denying what you are. You're one of us. You always have been."

"You're wrong." Blade growled, terrified deep down inside knowing that one of them was lying, and praying it wasn't him.

"Am I?" Frost chuckled. "You think the humans will ever accept a half-breed like you? They can't. They're afraid of you." He gazed at Blade pointedly. "The humans fear us because we're superior. They fear us because in their hearts they know their race has become obsolete." He watched the marketers stream past, sneering in contempt. "Look at them, just an endless stream of cattle in a mad race to the slaughterhouse." He lifted a silver flask to his mouth, taking a swig of blood before smacking his lips in contentment. "The pause that refreshes..." he offered the flask to Blade. "Care for some? Smells good, doesn't it? Pungent, with just an irrepressible hint of iron."

Blade's hands clenched in fists in his battle against the Thirst. "Pass."

"You sure now? I bled a newborn for this. You won't find a drink that's sweeter." Frost could obviously see that it took every ounce of Blade's self-control to keep from attacking, so the vampire pressed his sharp thumbnail against his young hostage's jugular. "Tell me honestly, do you _really_ get the same rush from that pasteurized piss-serum of yours?"

Blade's eyes widened, wondering just when all of his secrets had been discovered.

"You're surprised I know about your serum? You shouldn't be. I know everything about you." Frost leaned forwards, grinning. "You can't keep walking the razor's edge, Blade. The day will come, and soon, when you'll have to choose between our kind and theirs. If I were you, I'd take care not to wind up on the wrong end of the fang." A bead of sweat ran down Frost's neck, washing away a minute amount of the sun-blocking cream, the patch of exposed skin instantly blackening, causing Frost to gaze upwards at the sun. "Love to continue this chat, but it appears I'm melting."

The vampire stood, taking the little girl by the hand.

Blade followed, his hand resting on the butt of his Casull. "You're not going anywhere."

Frost grinned, growling. "Watch me."

The vampire's eyes flickered towards the street, to a city bus rumbling by, and in a heartbeat hurled the little girl forwards onto the path of the oncoming bus.

Blade only had a split-second to act, it was either Frost or the girl, and for a moment he actually contemplated going for Frost. At the last second he dove forwards, scooping the girl into his arms, throwing themselves out of the bus' path, the large vehicle missing them be a hair.

By the time Blade looked up again Frost was gone.

Cursing, Blade stood, scanning the street as market-goers gathered around him.

Too much had happened in too short a time-span.

He needed to go back to home-base and tell Whistler what had happened.

So deep in his thoughts as he headed towards his Olds, Blade didn't notice a biker covered from head to toe in black leather and a motorcycle helmet watching him.

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"What exactly are you looking for?" Chloe asked, looking up from the different ancient manuscripts that'd been digitally archived in the external hard drive she was now checking through her computers. This dialect wasn't exactly the same one of the LaMagra scripts, but it was a variant, a little newer, and to be able to understand it all correctly she'd have to write up a new program and code, which would take a while and a lot of effort.

"That's none of your concern." Danica Talos declared. "Can you decipher it or _can't_ you?"

"Given time and the right initiative I can decipher _anything_." Chloe didn't mind honking her own horn, especially not towards the vampire she just _did not_ like.

"Hmmmm." Danica eyed her with interest, obviously sizing her up. "Where did Deacon find such a _useful_ little minion?"

"I came highly reccommended." Chloe flinched away from the finger Danica trailed down her neck, sending the vampire a glare.

"Feisty, I like that in my toys. I like to break them." Danica turned towards the vampire with whom she'd had Chloe _entertain_ them. "You should have known Hannibal before I finally broke him. He had the sharpest mouth...but my whips were sharper. They're the kind that cut into your flesh and tear chunks out with each slash." Danica's eyes twinkled with devilish enjoyment as she eyed the unease in Chloe's green orbs. "Do you _like_ a little pain?"

"That sounds like a _lot_ of pain." Chloe replied as Danica reached down to cup her chin.

The door opened and Lana surprised Chloe by entering, eyes narrowed on Danica's hold on her before her face went completely pleasant. "Ms. Talos, I've been instructed by my sire to insure you and your party are placed in our best rooms and sufficiently rested for your departure tonight."

Despite her amicable words and expression, it was obvious that the message she carried from Deacon was for Danica and her people to be gone by tonight.

"I really_ have_ peeved him by playing with his little toy, haven't I?" Danica chuckled, giving Chloe's chin a little shake before letting go, turning to her brother Asher, Jarko Grimwood, and favorite plaything, Hannibal. "Let's go."

"If you follow the ladies they'll take you to your accommodations." Lana stepped aside to reveal a couple of beautiful, voluptuous 'vampirettes' as Kal called them.

Danica smirked as she saw them. "They will most definitely do."

And with that she and her group left.

Lana waited until they turned the corner before closing the door behind her and turning to Chloe. "Hey."

"Hey." Chloe stood, feeling awkward. On one hand she was relieved to know that Lana was still alive, or well undead, but on the other hand things had been less than friendly between them since Kal had emerged and spurned Lana.

"So..." Lana cleared her throat, clasping her hands in front of her. "I've been thinking these last couple of days, and I've realized I've been a bitch."

Surprised by the way this conversation was going, Chloe could only watch her with wide eyes.

"It really didn't hit me until Lois." Lana lowered her head, guilt flashing across her face. "I'd only thought about myself and what was good for me, and I hadn't stopped and thought about the fact that you and Clark had lives, had families, had people who would love and miss and mourn you." She cleared her throat. "I don't have a family so I guess it didn't come to me naturally to consider them, yours, but Lois-Lois has come _daily_ to the Sorority House. She's searching for you, she won't give up..." Lana looked up at Chloe. "I don't blame you and Clark for hating me, I deserve it, and I'm sorry it's taken me this long to see my faults and apologize. I'm truly sorry."

"I don't _hate_ you." Chloe assured, going towards her friend and reaching for her hands, giving them a reassuring squeeze. "I never did...though I _did_ resent you for changing me."

"And I deserve it." Lana whispered.

"But everything's fine now, or it will be." Chloe promised, giving Lana a little smile. "We're immortal, let's spend that time as friends."

"I would like that." Lana whispered hoarsely, tears coming to her eyes before she cleared her throat and looked away. "I should really go make sure no one is messing up the Talos' 'care'." Squeezing Chloe's hand, Lana sent her a happy smile before hurrying out of the room.

Chloe smiled as the door closed, feeling so relieved things were on the mends with Lana.

The door opened once more but this time Kal entered, smelling like sunlight, a scent she realized that only she could pick up on. He'd obviously snuck out to recharge under the sunlight. "I saw Lang leaving here. What did she want?"

"We made up." Chloe responded. "And you should too."

"Not happening." He replied, eyeing around the room before stepping closer. "Frost ordered me to make sure you're not...entertaining...anyone."

Chloe bristled at the memory.

"I'd think you'd be _happy_ about that. Means Talos won't be having any more fun at your expense." Kal's eyebrow raised. "Or do you _like_ her cabana boy?"

"Don't be like that. We could have been playthings like him if things had been different." She frowned.

"You _do_ like him." Kal realized before sneering, shaking his head. "You have no taste."

"Look who's talking!" Chloe snapped back at him, pointing her finger accusingly in his direction. "You've slept with every female vampire in this House!"

"Not _every_ one." Kal replied meaningfully.

"Dream on." She glared, poking at his chest. "Cut it out with all the pretend flirtation, you're not going to get a reaction out of me."

Kal opened his mouth to probably say something that would infuriate her, when he noticed what was on the screens of her linked computers. "What are those?"

"I have no idea, but whatever it is it's ancient and the House of Talos find it important." Fight postponed, Chloe turned towards the screens and walked to her keyboard, typing in some commands and watching as her computer began to copy the external hard drive. "I'm making a ghost copy to go over after they leave, thankfully they forgot the drive here with me when Lana lured them away with big breasts and sultry smiles...but I know Jarko or Asher will be here any minute now to collect this. It's too important for them to just forget here."

The computers finished making the copy.

The door opened and Jarko Grimwood appeared. "We forgot our hard drive."

"Oh, right." Chloe feigned surprise and turned to the external hard drive, disconnecting it and passing it to the large vampire who must have been a wrestler or something before he'd been turned. "Sorry I couldn't be more of a help."

He nodded before leaving, mumbling something about a redhead waiting for him.

Hearing her phone ring with a text message, Chloe gazed down at her phone and brought up the message from Lois: **Made contact. Exton church. Tonight.**

The blonde shook her head, unable to believe it, showing the message to Kal.

"So she's useful after all." He mumbled.

Chloe slapped his chest. "I'm going alone."

"Who do you are that you think you can order me about?" Kal wanted to know.

Chloe frowned. "If somehow Deacon finds out he can't know that _we both_ were there. You're my secret weapon, Kal. Deacon knows that I'm a Daywalker, he has no idea about you or just how _special_ a Daywalker you are."

Kal glared at her before nodding. "If you get yourself killed I'll forever sneer at your memory."

She smirked, giving his tummy a little pat.

The door opened and this time Crease was there. "Chloe, Deacon's back and wants you to go to his room immediately."

Suddenly all the playful laughter was gone from Chloe as she gazed down at her shoes and nodded, squaring her shoulders.

Time to face the music.

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As Blade's Olds cruised into the gated grounds of the abandoned factor, zipping down the ramp way into the loading elevator, Mercury pulled to a stop and picked up a radio handset, keying it.

"This is Mercury. Tell Deacon I've found their hiding place."

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**tbc...**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Blade**

Sequel to: House of Frost

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When she entered Deacon's room Chloe braced herself for whatever would happen, and the tension radiating from him, transmitted to her through their sire-link, made her even more apprehensive as the door slid closed behind her. Her green gaze went to Deacon, who had yet to acknowledge her presence, going over some documents. His body tense, his eyes narrowed and tinged with red, his grip on the papers nearly breaking them.

"You called for me?" She finally spoke.

"What did Danica want you to go over?" Deacon asked, not looking up from his documents.

"They are some very old texts, though not as old as the LaMagra legends." Chloe replied, staying where she was, feeling a little more comfortable now that it seemed he'd brought her in to quiz her on work-related information. "Whatever it is she obviously considers the information vital, and is remaining quiet as to what exactly she's looking for."

"You think she's looking for something." Deacon finally looked up.

Chloe nodded. "Definitely."

"How could you tell if you didn't know what was on the hard drive?" He asked.

"A couple of the documents were maps." Chloe replied. "It's nothing recognizable, more like a map of something that might have been there hundreds of years ago and aren't standing anymore, at least not above ground."

He turned fully. "I don't feel comfortable with Danica having her hands on something like that. Find a way to make a copy of it and study it when they're gone."

"Already done." She announced. "I made a ghost copy of their hard drive, informed them that I couldn't help them, and gave them back their drive. They have no idea it's been copied."

"Good girl." Deacon smirked as he put down his documents and came towards her, too close for comfort, reaching out to brush a blonde strand out of her face. "Now...about that little performance with Danica's fuckboy."

Chloe went tense despite her orders to her body to remain lax, kept her gaze on his, refusing to back down.

"Tomorrow we will be going to a special doctor who will be able to tell me if you're expecting or not." He replied, placing his hand hard against her stomach. "Your womb is prize realty, and if that bastard's spawn has taken root I'll tear it out myself, understand?"

Fear began to rise within her.

"Good. _You do_." He smirked, reaching for her and pulling her into a harsh, punishing kiss. "Tonight is the night, LaMagra awakens. I expect you to be there by my side when I join with the blood god." With that warning not to be late, he stormed out of the room.

"Oh, I'll be there." Chloe whispered, wiping at her mouth. "You can count on that."

What Deacon didn't know was that there was a part of the ritual she'd never told him about.

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The sun was setting, or so the time of her clock betrayed. Karen had made progress, but it'd been slow and nothing compared to her earlier discovery. She was tired, completely burnt out, but unwilling to rest for even a moment. The wound on her neck was clearly infected, gangrenous, what Whistler had done to help her obviously hadn't been enough and the transformation was starting. She needed to find that cure, she needed to find it _now_.

She ran her hand over her face to try and wipe away the sleep as she went back to gazing at a blood smear slide through a microscope.

"No, no, no." She pulled away and took in a deep breath. "I've looked at that blood smear a million times, I need to remove myself from it for a second and think basic."

Karen took in another breath and tried to think this through, tried to remember every single thing Whistler had told her about vampires and why they did what they did, like the fact that they drunk blood because their own blood couldn't sustain hemoglobin. In that sense vampirism was somewhat like a genetic defect, just like Hemolytic anemia.

Suddenly Karen's eyes widened, unable to believe that she hadn't thought about it before.

It was _exactly_ like Hemolytic anemia!

Why hadn't she thought about it?

Gene therapy!

Basically one would have to re-write the victim's DNA and alter it so that the DNA would produce proteins capable of generating hemoglobin by injecting a retrovirus into the bone marrow cells, which would cause the host's DNA to mutate! Doctors had been using that to treat Sickle-cell anemia!

Karen gave a little shriek of excitement.

This could work!

Everyone human who'd been turned into a vampire could be cured!

Herself included!

Giving another shriek of happiness, Karen hurried about her job.

Once it was done and she had tested the cure on herself, she had two vampire hunters she needed to find.

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Blade was being a fool and Whistler had refused to join him as the Daywalker walked into what was so terribly obviously a trap. He knew that the boy was unnerved by Frost's venture into daylight, no matter how brief, and was also discouraged by how little progress they'd made, but Whistler didn't think that it excused his pupil from making such a novice mistake as the one he was making right now. It was because of that, and because Blade needed to learn from his own mistakes, that Whistler remained at the abandoned factory instead of backing up the Daywalker as he usually would in these circumstances.

Suddenly the lights in the workshop flickered then when out, causing Whistler to look around the room, wary. The back-up generator should've kicked in by now, but a couple of more seconds passed and the generator still hadn't kicked in. He moved to a window and gazed out, realizing that the UV floodlights were down as well.

As Whistler reached for a flashlight, a voice spoke behind him.

"I didn't expect your security to be so lax."

Whistler spun around, eyes wide, recognizing his voice.

Deacon Frost stepped into the pool of illumination thrown off by the flashlight, followed by his minions. "It's been a long time, hasn't it, 'old friend'?"

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Blade looked around the abandoned church on Exton, wondering exactly what religion had been worshipped here. There was an altar lit with candles and pictures of saints which one would think catholic, and yet statues and portraits of demons and other occult material also littered the place. There were small dolls, some clay, some cloth, hanging by their necks, pins sticking in them reminiscent of voodoo. Still yet there were images of old pagan deities and animal spirits littered about.

Feeling something he never had before, an awareness, Blade turned and saw a young girl, blonde, green eyes, wearing black and a grim expression. She wasn't human. Vampire. But he'd never been able to sense a vampire quite like this before, and it made him wary as he turned to fully face her, ready for the ambush Whistler assured him this was.

The girl, who seemed unarmed and no older than eighteen, took in a deep, unnecessary breath. "Thank you for coming, Daywalker, I didn't think you would."

"What do you want, bloodsucker?" He hissed, uncomfortable with her civility.

"You want to know what Deacon Frost is planning, and I want you to know." She replied.

He was taken away by the bluntness, the straightforwardness, and wary by the offer. "Why would you betray one of your own kind?"

"Why would you fight your kind?" She countered.

"I'm _different_." He snarled, hating being compared to her and her kind.

"Yeah, aren't we all." She rolled her eyes.

Blade glared at this woman, not liking how she disconcerted him with her whole attitude.

"I don't have much time," to her credit, the bloodsucker looked genuinely uneasy as she gazed around her before turning to him. "Listen carefully Blade, because I won't have time to run everything over with you once more. Deacon Frost sired me because he needed someone on his team who was a brainiac, for lack of a better word. He'd been trying to decipher some texts of the Book of Erebus, some of the oldest writing in vampire history. They were so old the oldest vampires still around didn't even know the language. I was able to write and run a program that translated it, and you need to know what's going down."

Blade frowned darkly.

"The whole text was about LaMagra, the vampire blood god. The scrolls talked about His return, and that when he did it would usher vampires everywhere into a new age of dominance over humans." She took in a deep breath. "But for LaMagra to be awaken, the scrolls said that, and I'm paraphrasing here: 'there will come a Day Walker whose blood will call the Sleeper from beyond the Veil of Tears'."

"His blood-?" Blade hissed.

The blonde female nodded. "Your blood is a trigger, it's the catalyst to LaMagra's rebirth, awakening. According to the texts one only needs to consume your blood, and the spirit of his ancestors will settle upon him. It says that the Sleeper, or LaMagra, will rise from the shadows anew, cleansing the world in a Tide of Blood."

"Tide of Blood." Blade echoed.

"It's basically the vampire apocalypse." The vampire sighed. "The scrolls say that all who feel its taint will succumb to the Thirst." She made a face. "Thing is LaMagra isn't a physical being. He's a spirit, requiring a flesh and body host in order to manifest himself."

"Frost." Blade murmured.

The vampire nodded.

Blade's eyes narrowed behind his shades. "This is bullshit. If it was true you wouldn't be telling me."

"It's the _truth_." She snapped at him, eyes flashing in anger. "Why do you think Deacon is all of a sudden trying to make peace with you? Trying to get you to join him? To lure you to his side? He _knows_ he needs you, your blood, if he's to awaken LaMagra and decimate the earth, make humans into the cattle he sees them as." She took a step towards him, chin raised. "I'm telling you the truth and risking my _neck_ to do so, so if you don't believe me and the world goes to _hell_ then it's _your_ fault everyone dies."

Blade frowned, cocking his head to the side as he examined her. "Why wouldn't you want that? You're a vampire."

She narrowed her eyes. "Not _all_ of us want the same things."

"You kill humans to survive." He pointed out coldly. "I'm sure you all agree on _that_."

"If we feed from someone and don't kill them they will turn. If we didn't kill everyone we ate there'd be an epidemic on our hands and there would _be_ no more humans. Have you ever stopped and thought about that, Daywalker?" She snapped at him.

"We can cure those recently bitten." He snarled back.

"Right, the garlic solution." She taunted, annoying him because there was _yet another_ thing about him that the vampires shouldn't know about and yet did. "They're about just as effective as your serum, isn't it? It's not a guaranteed treatment and most of the people you inject that into either die from the shock or still end up turning despite it." Her hands went to her hips. "Tell me, Blade, what's the percentage of success rate do you have? Thirty percent? Twenty?"

A muscle jumped in his cheek because he couldn't counter that.

"Ten?" She countered, seeming to get a hellish delight out of his silence. "_Five_?" Thankfully, she stopped after that. "Obviously our way of doing things is better. Do you _really_ want millions of vampires out there?"

He glared at her. "I'd prefer if there were _none_."

She raised her chin further, defiant, unafraid, _annoyed_. "Well _boo hoo_."

Blade's eyebrow raised.

Seriously, who was this girl?

She was unlike any vampire he'd ever met!

And what was this strange awareness he felt towards her?

Suddenly there was a noise from the entrance of the church and Blade immediately went on the defensive, pulling out his weapons, but instead of a gang of ravenous vampires, that brunette female emerged, holding a cellular. "You need to see this."

The blonde looked deeply annoyed with her. "I told you to stay away from here while I talked to him."

"Yeah, you did." The brunette acknowledged as if that really wasn't important, not at all acting like a familiar and dicing that suspicion in the Daywalker's mind. "Smallville 2.0 has texted you a message for the Daywalker."

"He could have _killed_ you." The vampire wasn't letting that go, snarling at the human. "He could have thought you were a vampire ambush!"

Which, Blade had to admit, for a split second he had.

"Well, he didn't, and he _really_ needs to get this message." The human responded.

Blade looked between the two females and felt himself go stiff as he realized that the vampire was...worried...for the human.

How was this _possible_?

The vampire took the phone from the human and looked at the message, before her green eyes widened and she turned to Blade. "You need to go back to your headquarters. _Now_."

Blade's eyes narrowed. "Why?"

"Deacon's found it." She whispered. "And he's paying a visit as we speak."

_Whistler_!

Blade's eyes widened and he raced passed the vampire and human, hurrying towards where he'd parked the Olds.

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As they exited the old abandoned church, Chloe turned to Lois. If Deacon had decided to attack the Daywalker's home like this, he was obviously starting the procedures for the Blood Ritual and would leave some map of some sort for him to follow...most probably carved in Blade's human companion's skin.

"I need you to listen to me." Chloe placed her hands on her cousin's shoulders. "I need you to get out of here, go to Smallville, _do it_ this time. I don't want any little text from you saying you're still here because you think you can be useful. You can't."

Lois' eyes narrowed. "But-."

"A vampire _blood god_ is being conjured tonight. A BLOOD GOD!" Chloe snapped at her, fangs elongating, the whites of her eyes tinting pink in her frustration. "You are only human. You can't do anything but _die_. I need you to stop being so blockheaded and go to my father. Keep him company, he has no idea what might happen tonight. I need you to be there in case...in case things don't go as planned and Blade, Kal and I fail."

Lois' anger died slightly at the mention of Gabe's safety. "I hate this."

"I know." Chloe responded, letting go. "But you need to go now. Deacon has me on a short leash and I need to be at our House before he starts wondering where I've gone off to and gets suspicious. So go. Okay?"

"I will." Lois whispered, nodding, before reaching out and shocking Chloe by hugging her tightly. "Be careful Lil Cuz."

Chloe froze, the sound of Lois' blood rushing through her veins tempting, her fangs growing sharper, her fingernails growing claw-like. Yet somehow she managed to take in a deep breath, close her eyes, and hug her cousin back instead of ripping her throat out as every instinct in her screamed for her to do. "You too."

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Blade hurried off of the elevator into the workshop, his heart skipping a beat in terror as he found the place trashed. It looked like a tornado had touched down in his absence.

He pulled out one of his .454s, cautious despite his desire to race and find his only true friend. "WHISTLER?"

The Daywalker suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, eyes wide in horror as they finally found Whistler. The human had been strung up by his arms against the far wall, tortured and left for dead.

In response to Blade's voice, a moan escaped the dying man's lips.

Rushing to the wall, Blade cut Whistler down with his sword, gently lowering him to the floor. He cradled the old man his arms, eyes on the primary wound...two ragged puncture marks along the man's throat. "Jesus, Whistler, what did they do to you?"

Whistler opened his eyes, struggling to speak. "Frost..." He spasmed and coughed, wincing from the pain.

"Don't try to talk." Blade whispered.

"Listen." Whistler's eyes had the strength his voice lacked. "You have to-finish me off. You don't want me coming back."

"No, we can treat the wounds." But even as Blade said that the vampire's mocking words rang in his mind and he snarled because she was unfortunately right. The treatment was as good as a placebo most of the time, he'd only seen it actually work once, and that person had just been bitten a minute or so before the treatment was administered.

"You know it won't work, I'm too far gone." Whistler wheezed.

Blade froze, at a complete loss, understanding what his mentor and only friend meant. "Whistler, I can't."

Whistler surprised him as he reached for Blade's gun. "Walk away, boy."

Closing his eyes, hating himself for having failed the human this way, Blade stood and turned his back on Whistler, walking away, never looking back, not even when he heard the sound of the gun firing. Instead he walked away, staring in front of him unseeingly until suddenly a sharp view camcorder that didn't belong to them caught him eye. Resting nearby was a label that read PLAY ME.

Reaching for the camcorder, Blade played the feed, Frost's face appearing on the the built-in screen.

"Hello Blade." The vampire declared with a smirk. "By the time you watch this, Whistler will no doubt be winging his way to Heaven, thanks to your capable hands. If it makes any difference to you, he put up quite a fight." Frost touched a deep gash which ran across his cheek. "I'll make this as easy as possible for you. You can find us at the Edgewood Towers. We'll be waiting with baited breath."

The tape cut to static.

Snarling, Blade threw the camcorder against the wall, shattering it into a dozen pieces.

He was going to kill Deacon Frost tonight, and nothing, not even a blood god, was going to stop him.

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When Mercury found her, Chloe was through her third victim, blood pouring down her face, eyes reddened from bloodlust. She'd gone through so much stress and anxiety and then had fought so viciously not to sink her tingling fangs into Lois' oh-so-tempting jugular that once she'd managed to get away from her cousin she'd been unable to stop herself. But the hunger had been harder to quench, the vampiric side of her demanding the blood she'd denied herself at the church. It was really that moment, as Mercury watched her in amusement, arms over her chest, that Chloe realized the full extent of what she'd become. She was a predator, unable to control herself or the Thirst, and fear entered her at the thought of the Blood Tide and vampires worldwide tainted by this gut-clenching need to sink fangs deep and nurse till the victim breathed no more and never would.

"Deacon sent me to see what was keeping you." Mercury declared, hip leaning against the alley wall, watching Chloe finish bleeding the body in her hands dry before breaking the neck to make doubly sure that somehow this person wouldn't come back as one of them. "This is all thanks to you and your brain, you need to be there to see it happen."

Letting the body fall to the ground, Chloe took in a couple of breaths as she wiped the back of her palm across her face, smearing the blood. "Didn't want to meet the Blood God on an empty stomach."

Mercury's lips twitched. "Come on now, we can't start the fun without you."

Taking in a deep breath, Chloe nodded. "Let's go."

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The whole compound had been given the order to evacuate, all non-combat members told to find refuge somewhere else. They were being expelled like insects, and those who questioned or wished to speak to Deacon themselves to understand what was happening were treated with little mercy, a couple of the men of the House having to be dragged out by their terrified females. In the middle of the chaos, Lana looked around her feeling fear for the first time since she'd been sired. This was too last minute, too...

She shook her head, looking around for someone she knew who could give her answers.

Only hours ago she'd been in charge of the House of Talos' care, and then not a full hour after they'd left things had begun changing, and now this evacuation.

Seeing Crease, Lana's eyes widened as she pushed her way through the crowd towards him. "Crease! What's happening? Why are we being evacuated?"

He seemed distracted, disturbed, as he turned towards her. "None of your business Lana, but for your own safety all I can say is get the _hell_ away from here for the night."

"Have Chloe and Clark-_Kal_-," she corrected herself, clearing her throat. "Have they cleared the building? Are they safe?"

A strange look passed over his face. "They're where they're meant to be." And with that he pushed her away. "_Go_."

It was the blankness in his eyes that did it for her.

Turning, Lana joined the crowd in the rush to leave the building.

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Something didn't feel right.

As Kal stood by Deacon's side he couldn't help but feel something in the air, it was nearly electric. The building had been evacuated of all non-essencial personnel, and all those who were meant to be there were there, including Chloe, who's shirt was splattered with blood and lips tinted from a recent kill. For a moment he wondered if that was Lois' blood, but then he put it out of his mind, figuring the blonde wouldn't touch her cousin unless completely under the control of the Thirst. She still had some sort of _loyalty_ towards the human, and while Kal didn't understand or appreciate it, thinking it foolish, he figured it was something he was going to have to get used to.

If things went according to plan and they managed to stop Deacon and LaMagra, destroying them both, Kal figured the House would need a new _Head_, and while he was sure he would have contention with others for leadership he knew that none of them would be able to match him for strength or cunning. He had already figured out how to remove the tattoo of the House of Frost from his body...going out in direct sunlight with all his body protected except for the patch over his tattoo which would, after a period, cause the sun to burn his skin near unrecognizable, burning the ink right out of his body. Then all he'd had to do was drink a couple of humans and regenerate his skin, tattoo-less.

And the funny thing was that the House of Frost's tattoo could easily be adapted to the House of El's symbol.

Seemed like fate.

But it all depended on making sure the Daywalker won this battle, and if he didn't have what it took Kal would have to intervene...though subtly. No vampire would ever join with a vampire who killed his own kind. Whatever happened tonight, whether LaMagra was successfully summoned or not, Deacon Frost wasn't leaving this place alive.

"He's here." Deacon smirked, eyeing the screens as were they all.

Blade was on the rooftop of the building across the street, scoping their home with a pair of binoculars. Suddenly he hefted an air-launcher rifle up into firing position and fired, an iron spike trailing a steel cable rocketing through the air between the two buildings, sinking into the concrete facade of the penthouse. The Daywalker secured his end of the rope, slipping a pulley over it as he grabbed hold of two handles and leapt off of the roof ledge.

"Gotta give him points for originality." Crease muttered, tenser than usual, eyes narrowed, standing alone in the darkest corner of the room.

Kal sent him a look, eyes narrowing slightly, before returning his gaze to the screen as Blade slid toward the penthouse, a good twenty stories above street level.

A second before reaching the windows, Blade let go, momentum sending him crashing through in a shower of glass and triggering the alarms.

Two guards raced towards him but were dispatched with his silver sword and vicious accuracy, causing a sliver of respect to form in Kal's chest at the recognition of a fellow warrior. A third vampire leapt at Blade and he spun, flipping his attacker over his shoulder, sending him straight through one of the other windows, sending him crashing all the stories down to the concrete beneath. It wasn't enough to kill a vampire, but that unlucky bastard would be very smashed up, bones broken, and unable to feed due to his inability to move thanks to said broken bones.

Blade unsheathed his sword and headed out into the hall, seeming to be following some invisible thread. Every vampire who met him met an abrupt, painful death, and the Daywalker continued massacring the oncoming vampires despite the odds being against him.

Kal smirked. If this guy was half this good while fighting Deacon Kal wouldn't have to do anything. This Daywalker would do it all for him.

Blade finally stopped once he came to a set of steel doors with a time-lock mechanism. He drew a Cassul, blasting away at the lock before shouldering the doors open and stepping into Frost's sleeping chambers. It was a windowless, vault-like room dominated by a series of high-tech stainless steel sarcophagi. But instead of Frost, the Daywalker came across someone Kal bet he hadn't expected to see.

Vanessa.

She was dressed in angelic white, her hair long in curls, everything about her deliberately innocent and vulnerable. "Eric."

Blade froze, eyes widening in horror. "_Mother_?"

Chloe gasped, the sound loud in the silent room.

Vanessa stared at Blade, tears staining her cheeks. "I've missed you so much Eric." She drew closer. "You have no idea what I've been through, how much I've wanted to see you."

Chloe turned to Crease. "Vanessa's his _mother_?"

His only answer was a curt, tense nod.

Deacon turned. "Time to make an appearance." With that he left the room, the door closing behind him.

On the screen Blade obviously faltered, mind reeling, what he was seeing incomprehensible. He'd believed his mother was dead and yet here she was in the flesh, reaching out to him...and flashing a mouthful of viper-like fangs. She snarled and struck, brutally raking her claws across Blade's face, knocking the sword from his grasp.

A trio of black-clad vampires led by Mercury stepped from the shadows where they'd been waiting all along. Armed with tasers they fired em masse, hitting Blade from all sides. He writhed as electricity coursed through him, before collapsing in a heap on the floor, laboring to lift his head, looking up at Vanessa.

For a second, Kal felt pity.

"You died..." Blade flinched through the pain.

Vanessa gave him a hellish smile for his troubles. "I'd call it Sleeping more than dead."

As if on cue Deacon appeared at Vanessa's side, wrapping a proprietary arm about her waist, kissing the nape of her neck.

She leaned into him, closing her eyes, obviously relishing this act of intimacy.

Then again, she hadn't exactly been very much in Deacon's good books lately.

"Hello Blade." Deacon grinned. "So good to see you." He bent down on his knees to stare into the fallen Daywalker's eyes. "You're not looking so well." He reached into Blade's jacket, retrieving a vial of what was probably this serum Kal had heard so much about. "What do we have here? Your precious serum?" He smirked. "I don't think you'll be needing this anymore."

Deacon crushed the vial in his fist.

Blade struggled to reach the vampire, stretching a palsied hand upwards towards his mother. "Please."

"Listen to your father, Eric." Vanessa scolded him.

Blade stared at her, uncomprehending.

Chloe though, brought a hand to her mouth, eyes wide in horror.

Kal, having known this already, just waited for the Daywalker's reaction.

"Don't look so surprised, Blade." Deacon taunted. "You've spent your life looking for the vampire who fathered you. Well...you can rest easy now, you've found him." He grabbed Blade's chin. "Daddy's here."

Blade's eyes widened in shock.

Deacon simply laughed. "It's true, Blade. You've got my blood running through your veins," He smiled. "Thirty years ago on a moonlit night a woman was on her way to her home all alone. You were conceived the night I tore my fangs into your mother's flesh."

With that said, Deacon swung his fist into Blade's skull, and the Daywalker collapsed unconscious.

Kal turned a look to Chloe, who was still eyeing the screen in shock.

He sighed.

He was really going to have to work on her if she was going to be a part of the House of El.

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**Review?**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Blade**

Sequel to: House of Frost

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As Blade opened his eyes, still groggy, his face was beaded with sweat and he was feverish. His hands were bound tightly behind his back with manacles and chains, and he was too weak to even try and break them. Slight movement from the darkness of the other side of the room drew his attention and he noticed for the first time that he wasn't alone, the brunette human who'd been with the blonde vampire sat nearby watching him. For a split second he thought that it'd all been a trap and this familiar was there to gloat, but then he realized that she was bruised, having recently gone up against someone much stronger and vicious than her and obviously having lost.

He tried to sit up, but didn't have the strength.

"Are you okay?" The human finally asked.

"I've been better." He hissed, the steady rocking motion and the sounds of traffic outside betraying that they were in the back of a moving truck. "How long have we been driving?"

The girl shook her head. "I don't know. I woke up just before you did."

"Why exactly are you here?" Blade frowned.

"I don't know, I was headed towards the bus station to get the hell out of dodge when I was blindsided and knocked out." She whispered, hugging herself. "I pray to god they got me because Frost found out about my existence and wants to use our relationship as leverage over Chloe and _not_ because he found out what she's doing."

"Relationship." Blade frowned slightly, eyes narrowing at those words.

At first the brunette clammed up, and then she sighed. "She's my baby cousin."

Were bloodsuckers really able to keep loyalty and ties to their human family?

Suddenly the truck lurched to a stop and the engine was killed as footsteps approached. A series of bolts could be heard shifting as the back of the truck was thrown open.

Deacon Frost stood there, grinning, flanked by Mercury, Quinn, Vanessa, and a half-dozen other vampire associates.

Blade noticed shock cross the eyes of one of the newer male vampires close to Deacon when he noticed the human with Blade.

The human was decidedly not looking in that vampire's direction.

The Daywalker gazed down, figuring that that male vampire must have been the one in league with the blonde, and had been the one to warn Blade about Frost having found his headquarters.

"Welcome home, children." Frost grinned, before turning to his minions. "Bring them."

A couple of the males grabbed him and the brunette, dragging them out from the back of the truck, which a quick glimpse proved to be an armored car.

The Bank of Erebus rose up before them, a towering beaux-arts situated in the heart of the city's high-priced financial distract-one of the many institutions owned and operated by the vampire enclave.

Frost started up the marble steps towards a grand, triple-arched entrance flanked by Corinthian columns, Blade and the girl dragged along after him. He led everyone into a high-ceilinged atrium, moving towards a bank of elevators, one of the doors which was outfitted with a high-tech hand-key system. He placed his palm to the ID screen, and it glowed green, acknowledging his identity. In response, the doors hissed open.

Blade and the girl were pulled inside the elevator along with the vampires, Blade narrowing his eyes as he suddenly _felt_ that same _awareness_ he had with the blonde vampire, but now it seemed directed towards the blank-faced male whom Blade was almost certain was her associate. The Daywalker glanced at the elevator's control panels, whose buttons had vampire glyphs rather than numbers.

Frost pressed the bottom one, causing the doors to close as the elevator descending down, he then sent the human female a look, smiling amiably. "On its surface, this building houses one of the city's financial institutions, and for over two-hundred years its served our corporate needs. Look beneath the surface, however, and you'll discover another truth entirely."

The elevator chimed, having arrived at its destination, the doors hissing open to reveal a vast, barrel-vaulted chamber lined with recessed tombs stretched out like an underground cathedral of sorts, wrought from alabaster and marble. It was restrained, elegant, replete with dark splendor. "

"As above, so below." Frost declared as they exited the elevator. Torches burned in wall sconces, casting everything in a warm, amber glow, causing Frost to take in the beauty of the place. "Welcome to our hall of ancients. We call it the Temple of Night."

Two vampires were going over something in the middle of the room, where a stone altar rose up from a dais, and when Frost spoke they turned, one proving to be the vampire from the church. She opened her mouth to say something when her gaze fell on the human in their midst, unable to hide the look of utter horror.

Frost turned to her. "Darling, look who's come to visit."

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Chloe hadn't really thought much about the fact that Deacon had sent her ahead to the Temple of Night without him. She'd been key in translating the Book of Erebus concerning LaMagra and it would make sense that he send her ahead to make sure that things were ready for him when he arrived, so when she turned at the sound of his voice and saw not only Blade in custody of the House of Frost but _Lois_ as well, she couldn't keep the horror off of her face. There were bruises on the human, proving that she hadn't come without a fight, and that worried Chloe, knowing how Deacon's men were trained to think of humans as less than animals. God knew what they'd done to her.

Blade was roughly thrown to the ground and he knelt there, eyes cast downward, broken, his system obviously being assaulted by the devastating effects of the Thirst.

Chloe ignored him unable to look away from Lois, who was eyeing her apologetically for having been caught.

"What? No hugs? No tears? No how do you do's?" Deacon asked curiously, before his smile fell. "Oh, right. You've been in contact with her since you were turned, weren't you?"

"There's nothing wrong with that." Chloe raised her chin, turning to look at him, refusing to back down. "You never said I had to break all ties with my family." Her eyes narrowed. "I've done nothing wrong."

"Nothing wrong?" Deacon asked curiously, coming towards her. "Really? Nothing wrong?" He sent a look in Crease's silent direction. "So she and this bleeder _weren't_ having secret meetings with Blade?"

Chloe froze in horror, her gaze going to Crease.

His head was bowed before he cleared his throat and raised his gaze to Deacon's, nodding. "Yes, they were. I saw them myself." He turned his gaze to Chloe. "You're senses are _deplorable_. You really _should_ have been able to sense me."

Her heart hurt as the only person she'd really considered a new friend in the house was the one to pound the nails into her coffin.

Deacon turned to her. "You let me down, Chloe. I had such great hope for you, but it seems you need to be punished." He turned to Kal. "Take her to the Bone Pit."

Kal didn't hesitate, nodding as he went to Lois and grabbed her arm roughly, dragging the struggling woman with him.

"No!" Chloe cried, trying to hurry after them but was stopped by Frost, who grabbed her arm and held her there. "She has nothing to do with this! I enthralled her to help! Let her go!"

"You need to see what happens when you piss me off." Deacon replied in that serene way, yanking her behind him as they trailed after Kal and Lois, finally arrived in a room which housed a series of pits some forty feet deep. They were lichen-encrusted stone walls worn smooth over time, and the scent in the air was _wrong_, decaying, sickening.

"Where are we?" Chloe whispered, bringing her free hand to cover her nose, trying to block out the scent.

"We call this the Bone Pit." Deacon declared as he motioned Kal to drag Lois towards the mouth of a pit. "It's where we keep our mistakes, the ones who couldn't successfully make the transition from human to vampire. They'll feed on anything, given the chance-animals, corpses, even other vampires."

Chloe's eyes widened in horror as Lois' terrified glance met hers. "_No_." She turned to Deacon, grabbing his shirt. "_Please no_."

He smiled down at her, reaching down to caress her cheek gently before turning to Kal and nodding.

Kal punched Lois in her stomach, causing her to cry as she doubled over, hands going to her stomach, and then she was falling into the Bone Pit.

"NO!" Chloe screamed and cried, trying to get free yet unable to, Deacon's hold too strong.

"See?" He announced amiably. "This is why you're going to behave from no on." He pulled her closer, leaning closer to her as tears fell down her cheek. "Because next time, that's going to be your dad."

She snarled and attacked him, managing to tear out a bit of his hair. "You're a monster!"

"If I were a monster I would have killed you for your betrayal." He sneered slapped her, yanking her behind him as he began to lead them out of the room.

"We _both_ know why I'm not dead." She hissed, tears falling down her cheek.

Suddenly there was an inhuman roar and Lois could be heard screaming...and then everything went silent.

"_No_." Chloe sobbed. "_Lois_."

Kal shouldered passed Chloe roughly, joining Quinn and Mercury, who were picking their way through Blade's discarded gear, Quinn eyeing the punching dagger with admiration.

"Now, will you behave or do I have to tell Maurice to pick up daddy dearest?" Deacon sneered. "According to Maurice dear Gabe is _terrible_ at Jeopardy."

Chloe's eyes widened as she realized the implication, they had someone close to her father, stalking him, waiting to attack whenever the order was given. Lois' horrible death still weighed on her conscience, numbing her, and she couldn't risk her father. She couldn't. "I'll behave."

"Will you?" He pulled her closer, intimately.

She glared up at him through her tears, hating him. "_Yes_."

"Good." He smiled before letting her go to pick up Blade's scabbarded sword. "Let's see this sword of his." Unsheathing the blade he sighted down the length of it, testing its weight. With a flick of his wrist he lashed out, slashing Blade's cheek open. "Still quite sharp, I see."

Blade feebly struggled to rise.

Deacon clubbed him on the back of the neck with the sword's pommel, causing the Daywalker to crumble.

Chloe's gaze went to Kal, who was eyeing the happenings with apparent boredom, leaning against the wall, arms crossed over his chest.

She hated him for being the one to throw Lois to her death.

Her green gaze then went to Crease, who wouldn't look in her direction.

Deacon reached down, dragging Blade's head up by his hair. "How long has it been since you had your serum? Twelve hours? More? You must be quite thirsty by now." He croched down so that he was eye to eye with Blade. "What does it feel like? Is your blood on fire? Are you burning up inside?"

Blade shivered, gritting his teeth like he was going through heroin withdrawal. "Go...to..._hell_..."

Deacon smiled, his eyes burning with an infernal glow. "I've got news for you, blade. We're already here." He turned to the others motioning. "Take him to the sanctuary. It's time he was bled." His gaze went to Chloe. "Take her too, let her see another colleague die."

Chloe's chin raised, and when Mercury reached for her arm she jerked it away. "I can walk on my own."

Mercury smirked and went to help the others as they dragged Blade along with them, Kal and Crease remaining with Deacon and a few others.

With her chin raised high, Chloe followed Mercury, Vanessa and her crew to the Bleeding Chamber. It was a small, elevated antechamber which was situated above the main vampire sanctuary.

Blade, now weakened to the point of collapse, was secured into a modified iron maiden. When they were finished the front of the iron maiden closed into Blade, bullet-proof glass covering where his face was to show his pain and desperation, and two other panels of glass so the vampires could watch as the blades of the cover of the iron maiden cut into the Daywalker's wrists, opening up the cephalic and basilic veins.

Blood welled up from the fresh wounds, running down Blade's forearms, collecting in a cistern beneath his feet.

"It is done." Mercury declared, turning to one of the male vampires. "Stay here and keep her here, make sure she doesn't do something stupid." With that she and the other left to get ready for the ritual of invocation.

The glass around his face showed Blade struggling futilely against his bonds, crying out in frustration, his body eventually sagging from exhaustion.

"There's no use fighting us, Eric." Vanessa, the only other vampire still there, declared.

He looked up at the sound of her voice, focusing on her. "How could you be a part of this?"

Chloe looked between them, still unable to believe that the bitchy concubine was truly Blade's mother.

"These are my people now." She replied. "I'm one of them."

"You don't have to be." He whispered, which they probably wouldn't have heard if it wasn't for vampire hearing.

"You don't understand." Vanessa shrugged. "I've killed, I've hunted, and I've enjoyed it."

Chloe had to admit that she couldn't argue with that. Once she'd been sired things had changed, morals had been dashed, and now nothing seemed more comforting than a feed.

Vanessa drew closer, caressing the iron maiden, a touch of creepy eroticism in her actions, a dash of incest. "I wish you could see the world as I do. Deacon's opened my eyes. There's no turning back from that."

"I don't believe that." Blade hissed, his eyes going to Chloe's. "She doesn't seem to believe it."

Vanessa turned to Chloe, derision in her eyes. "Don't let whatever she told you confuse you, she's killed and fed and loved it. What that little upstart wanted was to take over after Deacon, his slight attention to her and compliments on her intellect having gone to her head. But then again we're an ambitious lot looking to further ourselves." She smiled, viper-like fangs showing. "So I guess her little ploy just proves how much of a vampire she really _is_."

"She still cares about her cousin. Her human cousin." Blade hissed.

Vanessa shook her head. "You're never going to get it, Eric. We're not monsters." She sighed. "_You are_."

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In the Bone Pit Lois rose, wary, clutching tightly the silver dagger Smallville 2.0 had passed her during his punch before sending her flying down onto the heaps of humans bones that were piled against the pit walls. Skulls, rib-cages, femurs, tibias-all picked clean of flesh. Some of the skulls had large, canine-like fangs, the remnants, no doubt, of long-deceased vampires. Or maybe werewolves. Did werewolves really exist? If vampires did werewolves should too, right?

Shaking her head, Lois kept her gaze on the dimness around her, knowing that the second she let her mind grow distracted that another of those things would come at her. They were like vampires but _wrong_, some deformed, all of them seeming half retarded acting more on instinct like rabid animals than rationally thinking things through. The good thing was that like vampires they had a weakness to silver, and the dagger Kal had snuck her had saved her life three times already.

There was at least one more out there, of that she was sure, she'd heard a shuffling sound towards the darkness where her gaze couldn't penetrate, so she just tightened her grip on her dagger and kept her back to the wall.

"_Loisssssss._" A voice whispered.

Her eyes widened in horror as a face emerged from the darkness. It was pallid, cadaverous, shedding its desiccated flesh. Lidless eyes like black marbles slick with vaseline and a mouth like a raw wound were deforming and yet she could still make out the face of the man she'd met but once. "_Curtis_?"

What used to be Curtis snarled, knocking Lois back into the drift-pile of bones, pinning her to the ground, kneeling above her, gurgling through its gutted trachea. "Tell me, Loisssss, does Karennnn ever have second thoughts-about ussssss?"

"I'm sorry Curtis." She whispered. "But Karen's over you." Shifting in his hold, she brought her knee up and managed to knee him, slipping out of his grip, tightening her own on the dagger as she turned and stabbed him through his back, the silver causing the creature to howl as the wounds left by each stab caught on fire. "You really need to move on!"

Falling on her ass, Lois hurried away as he turned towards her and lounged. She raised her dagger and it pierced his heart as he fall against her, his whole body bursting into ashes.

Coughing, Lois hurried to her feet, ready for another attack, but the silence in this pit was deadening. She waited a beat before hurrying to the pit wall, running her hands over the lichen-slick surface, searching for a way out. The mortar between the brickwork was ancient, crumbling. She gazed down to the ground, searching for two femur bones amongst the many and finally found them, slamming them against the wall a couple of times until they fractured.

Taking in a deep breath, dagger held between her teeth, fractured femurs in each hand, Lois pounded the bone into the mortar between two bricks, and it held, working as a makeshift piton.

"Here goes nothing." She whispered, lodging the other femur a foot above the first, hauling her body up now, suspending her weight from the two makeshift pitons. They held. She groaned, trembling from exertion as she pulled the bone free, hanging solely from her left hand now, and although her handhold was precarious she managed to swing the right hand up again, pounding that bone another foot above the left.

In this slow, torturous manner, Lois made her ascent out of the pit.

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The blood that dropped down to the cistern beneath Blade's feet flowed into a crude drain and emerged from the ceiling of the sanctuary below. The stream of blood was directed down the channels of a spiral column, where it finally pooled into a waiting chalice. The sanctuary itself was a large circular chamber, the perimeter of which was lined with recessed alcoves which housed the remains of the vampire ancients, set into the sanctuary like cells in a hive. Right about now Deacon was probably standing in the center of the chamber, changing into ceremonial regalia.

As she was held prisoner in the Bleeding Chamber, Chloe could imagine Deacon turning to his faithful, saying the first words of the ritual:

"Tonight is the night we've waited our entire lives for. Tonight, the blood-dimmed Tide is loosed upon the world. Tonight, the Age of Man comes to an end."

She was supposed to be there!

But instead she was stuck here with a vampire pressing a silver blade (with iron handle) warningly into her back, watching Vanessa make incestuous moves on her dying son.

"I doubt Deacon's gonna really want you anymore." The vampire behind Chloe declared, hand gripping her ass harshly. "I think I'll give you a go myself."

A muscle jumped in her cheek. "What is it with men and thinking they can take whatever they _want_?" She snarled, twirling around and pushing the blade away from her before twisting his wrist and slamming his own blade deep into his heart.

The vampire looked up at her in shock before bursting into flames, his blade clattering to the ground.

Vanessa turned from taunting her son to face Chloe, hissing. "Deacon is going to kill you!"

"Please, Deacon won't kill me," Chloe smirked, throwing Deacon's desire for her in the other woman's face, knowing that the fact that Vanessa nor anyone else didn't know about her Daywalker status meant they believed Deacon wanted her due to feelings and not necessity. "He'll kill everyone around me to punish me, but he'd never hurt me."

"You're deluded." Vanessa snarled, taking the bait, showing her ugly jealousy.

"No, I'm his _One_." Chloe countered, smirking evilly, using that term Lana had told her vaguely of, figuring if there was anything she could say to get a reaction out of Vanessa it was just _that_.

And Vanessa froze, eyes widening in horror. "_No_. You're lying! He wouldn't have let that fucktoy of Talos' touch you if you were his One!"

True...

"And lose face in front of Danica Talos?" Chloe snorted. "Deacon is smarter than that...and I agreed to it." She sauntered a little closer, moving her hips. "Why do you think he's been so _cold_ towards you lately?" She came even a little closer. "Why do you think he hasn't killed me? I conspired against him and yet other than kill my bleeder of a cousin he does nothing." She forced that smirk to go victorious, to not react to Lois' death. "You knew it all along, that's why you hate me. Because you know that the only person who could have taken your place as Deacon's favorite is his _One_."

"SHUT UP!" Vanessa cried, tears gathering in her eyes as she snarled and charged, letting her anger and hurt propel her movements. She jumped Chloe, knocking the dagger out of her hand and biting down viciously on Chloe's neck, not feeding but damaging, tearing at skin and veins. Chloe screamed, swinging them around and slamming Vanessa's body into the wall, scratching at the vampire's face.

Vanessa latched onto Chloe's neck tighter, ripping tissue, damaging muscles.

Realizing that as long as those fangs were embedded in her that she wouldn't get free, Chloe screamed as she yanked away, Vanessa's fangs tearing a bit of flesh away, and with the help of adrenaline Chloe surged forwards and ripped out the front of Vanessa's throat.

Blood gurgled out as Vanessa tried to scream yet was unable to, blood spurting out everywhere.

Neck and shoulder a mess, body begging for blood, Chloe's eyes went red with the Thirst as she lounged forwards, grabbing Vanessa's illustrious locks and using them to tilt the older vampire's neck back viciously as she latched onto the open wound and fed. Up until that moment she hadn't known it was possible to drink from another vampire, proving to herself just how ignorant to the world of her own race she really was. The blood tasted different yet not bad as she drunk deeply, Vanessa's claws digging into her back yet growing weaker until she just hung limply in Chloe's hold. It didn't fill like a human's would, didn't have the hemoglobin or such vampires needed to consume to survive and heal, but it wasn't unpleasant and managed to lessen her Thirst enough that her eyes were only slightly pink.

When Chloe finally let go, Vanessa's body crumbled to the ground. She'd gone into hibernation, as many vampires did once they'd lost a certain amount of blood.

Neck and shoulder still messed up and throbbing, Chloe reached down and grabbed the dagger she'd dropped. Falling to her knees next to Vanessa she stared at that beautiful face. "Ding Dong the Bitch is Dead." And with that she slammed the dagger down into the vampire's heart, causing her to go up in flames and ash.

The dagger fell from Chloe's hand, clattering on the ground.

"_Chloe_?"

Eyes wide, unable to believe it, Chloe turned towards the doorway to see her bruised and dirty yet otherwise fine cousin. "_Lois_?"

"What _happened_ to you?" Lois cried out, racing into the room and yanking off her jacket, bundling it together and pressing it against Chloe's wound, trying to stop the blood-flow. "Who did this to you?"

Chloe motioned to the ash next them.

Lois blew the ash away angrily before returning her attention to her cousin. "I came to save you."

Chloe smiled shakily, eyes filling with unwanted tears. "I thought you were dead."

"Vampires aren't the only ones hard to kill." Lois smiled back, reaching out to squeeze her cousin's hand.

Chloe squeezed back, a single tear making its way down her cheek. "How did you make it out of the Bone Pit?"

Lois pulled out a silver dagger. "Smallville 2.0 slipped this to me before throwing me in. I took care of the rest."

Chloe's eyes wide, unable to believe what she was hearing. "Kal _helped_ you?"

"Go figure, huh?" Lois grinned. "I'd hug you but with your neck and shoulder messed up I'd only hurt you."

"Better not anyway." Chloe whispered, taking in a deep breath. "I'd probably bite you, I'm Thirsty."

Lois nodded, understanding, yet didn't let go of her hand, tightening her hold.

Chloe sighed, wondering what she was going to do about her cousin.

The woman had no sense of self-preservation.

A groan to their right reminded Chloe that they were not alone. "Oh, gods." Stumbling to her feet, pressing that bundled jacket against her throbbing, agonized wound, Chloe hurried to the iron maiden and pressed a button, closing the opening for the blood beneath his feet, causing his blood to start to pool together. She then opened the iron maiden, working on Blade's restraints until he collapsed on top of her, landing them both on a heap on the ground.

Lois was at their side in a second. "I don't think he's going to be our big secret weapon anymore."

Chloe struggled till she was sitting up, Blade half over her.

His eyes flickered open, fixing on her, inhuman as he shook like an alcoholic going into delirium tremens.

Chloe sighed as she looked down on him. "Who said he was our secret weapon?"

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In the Sanctuary Temple Kal watched as Mercury handed Frost the chalice containing Blade's blood. The Head of the House of Frost lifted it up for all to see as the vampires began to chant en masse a long-forgotten invocation in the vampire tongue which they'd had to learn for the ritual. Kal mumbled the words, eyes narrowed, wondering what exactly was taking Chloe so long. He'd given the bleeder the means to defend herself and get the hell out of the pit and at least cause a _distraction_ so Chloe, who would no doubt be under intense guard, could break free and free the damned Daywalker. Their whole plan rested on Blade killing Frost, and yet the ritual was in full swing and the Daywalker was nowhere in sight.

If things didn't change Kal could see no other choice but to intervene himself, and he didn't want to do that. Not only would vampires never trust one who'd turned on his own kind, and Kal would be working closely with vampires from hereon out, but-.

"And what rough beast, its hour come round at last," Deacon grinned to himself. "Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"

Frost lifted the chalice to his lips and begun to drink.

Kal's eyes narrowed.

Where the hell was Blade?

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"He's going to be no use to us." Chloe realized, gazing down at the nearly dead Daywalker. "Frost is going to merge with LaMagra and there is going to be no one to keep him occupied."

"There has to be something we can do." Lois shook her head. "Don't vampires heal?"

"With _blood_." Chloe replied, shaking her head, trying to think of a new plan, knowing Kal would go ahead and try take on Deacon on his own if Blade didn't arrive at the Sanctuary soon. "Human blood. Which we don't have here."

"Yes, we do." Lois whispered.

Chloe turned to her, snarling. "No."

"Why not?" Lois snapped. "I'm here, it's what you need!"

"I'm not going to let him drink you dry, which he will considering that the Thirst has taken over him, and two...even if you _did_ survive you'd be infected."

"There's an antidote." Lois insisted.

"You heard him! It's not even 5 percent successful!" Chloe snapped at her, viper-like fangs elongating. "You'd become a_ vampire_. I'm not letting you do that."

"If this Deacon Frost guy becomes this blood god I'm dead anyway." Lois snapped back at her, grabbing her dagger and slicing her wrist before shoving her hand against Blade's mouth.

Blade moved faster than Chloe, taken over by the Thirst he latched onto Lois' wrist, fangs deep within her as he nursed.

"_Dammit_ Lois!" Chloe snapped at her.

Lois just closed her eyes and winced against the pain.

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Kal started to move towards Frost when suddenly a force seemed to take over the Head of the House of Frost's body.

Frost threw his head back, eyes rolling to white, flinging the chalice aside.

As the vampire incantation around them reached a fevered pitch the stone tomb tablets of the vampire ancestors began to judder, as if some force within was trying to break free.

Frost shook, possessed by an unseen force, a wind picking up from nowhere, swirling about the chamber accompanied by a strange _humming_.

Suddenly one of the tombs burst open, a wraith-like spirit rushing outward in a fountain of light, penetrating Frost's body.

Another tomb split apart, then another, and another, until a torrent of spirit-wraiths were surging into Frost, buffeting him about like a scarecrow in a cyclone.

Mercury, Quinn and the other vampires backed away, apprehensive, humbled by what they were witnessing.

Kal narrowed his eyes.

LaMagra had arrived.

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Blade moaned, sinking his teeth deeper.

Lois' head rolled back, lips parted, eyes open, glassy, unseeing, seeming as if a wave of ecstasy had overtaken her.

Chloe watched carefully, guarding. He'd drunk a lot, and if he didn't let go soon she was going to have to tear him away from her cousin.

Suddenly Blade tore himself away. "No!"

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The invocation of LaMagra reached critical mass as Frost was consumed by a hellish force, unable to withstand the onslaught of spirit energy any longer.

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Lois collapsed onto Chloe's lap the second after Blade had hurriedly pushed off, her breathing low. Having lost so much blood her body was entering into shock, the Sleep coming upon her. When she awoke she'd be that half-wraith that Chloe herself had been, forced with the choice to feed and live on, or starve and die. Chloe didn't want this, didn't want this at all, but Lois had made her own choice and there was nothing Chloe could have done to stop her-not when she herself was so messed up.

Blade stood at his full height, his strength more than returned, probably doubled considering that this was _real_ blood he'd consumed and not his stupid little serum.

There was something else though, as Chloe gazed up at him, cradling the body of her cousin in her arms. His gaze...there was an animal fury in them that'd been missing before, as if Blade had taken a giant step closer to the darkness.

"You think you can manage this next part without me holding your hand?" She drawled, refusing to let him know how intimidated she was with being in his presence while so weak and injured.

Blade turned to look at her, silent, intense. He flexed his hands, fingernails lengthening to tapered points, and when he smiled at her it offered a view of his canines, which had elongated into fangs.

When he spoke, the sound was near demonic.

"I think I can manage."

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**Review?**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Blade**

Sequel to: House of Frost

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Gulping, Karen injected her blood sample, watching as the solution she'd created started to be sucked in by the cells. She breathed in and out, praying, begging, hoping that _this one_ would work. There'd been so many 'almosts' since she'd started experimenting...and this time...

Her eyes widened as before her her blood cells slowly began to transform.

A tear slipped down her cheek as she brought her hands to her face and cried.

She'd found a cure.

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In the aftermath smoke hung heavy in the air, occluding the area where Frost had stood. Kal's eyes narrowed as he waited to see what would happen now, to see what exactly was on the other side of the curtain of smoke. It was high time he met this blood god Deacon had fawned over like some nerdy little fanboy.

As the smoke dissipated, Mercury and the others crept forwards, apprehensive. "Deacon?"

Frost stood with his back to them, his body trailing wisps of occult fumes, and when he slowly turned to them they caught a glimpse of the inner fire burning behind his eyes. "No longer."

Kal's eyes narrowed.

"FROST!"

All heads turned to find Blade standing at the balcony overhead. He leapt from it, somersaulting down to the floor below, landing on his feet like a predatory cat.

Kal's eyes narrowed, wondering why Chloe wasn't with the Daywalker.

That'd been the plan.

"Who dies first?" Blade issued the challenge, something different about him.

Frost growled to his minions. "Take him."

As the vampires converged on the Daywalker Kal slipped away easily with his superspeed, racing towards the Bleeding Chamber, cursing the blonde's inability to keep to a perfectly good plan. He failed to find her in the Bleeding Chamber, but her blood had been spilt, the smell and spatter was everywhere...and there was also Lois' blood in the air.

Breathing in the scent, fangs elongating, Kal turned and supersped, quickly coming upon the two girls as Chloe dragged her cousin's body through the hall, a trail of blood behind them. The blonde was staggering under the weight, obviously about to collapse.

Kal reached her as her knees gave out under her and he caught her, snapping his fangs at her in irritation. "Stop being such a _bother_! Pull your own goddamn weight!"

Her neck was ripped up something badly, and she was nearing the hibernation their kind went into once having lost a certain amount of blood. "Screw...you..."

"Maybe once you're not nearly unconscious." He snorted and rearranged her weight in his arms before grabbing up Lois by her shirt and superspeeding out of the Temple of Night to the safety of the outside alley, where he let the brunette fall to the ground. "_Eat_." He sat Chloe down on top of a closed garbage container. "Once you're not so _pathetic_ it'd be nice if you actually did what you were _supposed_ to do."

"Ah Kal..." She leaned heavily against the wall of the alley. "Didn't know you _cared_."

He snarled, snapping his fangs at her once more before superspeeding back to the Sanctuary, finding that Blade had apparently dusted all of Deacon's minions and was dueling the blood god incarnate in a blindingly-fast sword fight that even Kal with his superspeed was impressed by. Both men, fueled by super-human speed, lunged and spun across the cavern floor in a blurred ballet of lethal moves.

Kal leaned against a column, smirking as he observed both, analyzing and memorizing their fighting techniques and styles, storing away the information.

Frost landed a powerful blow on Blade's shoulder, the sword-edge biting deep into his flesh, causing Blade to scream. The vampire withdrew the sword for another strike yet Blade saw an opening and took it, slicing Frost's left arm off at the shoulder.

The severed arm released Blade's sword, but it didn't fall.

Kal's eyes widened as it floated in mid-air, bleeding red, quivering like zero-G liquid before slurping back to Frost's arm-stump to reattach itself.

Undaunted, Blade sliced the punching dagger into Frost's mid-section, meeting on liquid-like resistance, and the moment he withdrew the dagger Frost's flesh sealed itself up again.

Kal's eyes narrowed.

Blade hesitated now, uncertain.

Frost laughed, understanding what had happened. "You're too late, Blade. I'm already changing. Don't you see? The Sleeper has awakened. I'm not just Frost anymore. I'm becoming a god now, blood incarnate."

Even as Frost uttered the words his body began to ripple and morph, bleeding red, taking on the characteristics of liquid. He didn't walk so much now as flow, becoming a three-dimensional creature of animated blood.

Kal nodded, having seen the most important thing he'd been waiting for.

This was the true form of the blood god.

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Chloe could feel her organs beginning to shut off inside of her as her body readied itself to enter hibernation, but she fought to stay awake as she stumbled away from Lois, grabbing purchase on the alley wall as she headed towards the sounds of life outside of the alley. She needed to feed. She needed to feed _badly_. The pain was agonizing as the little blood she had left tried to circulate through her veins, her heart slowing down, beginning to skip beats. Her fangs elongated from the Thirst, her need to feed, to survive, taking over her every instinct.

Must...feed...

A drunken guy emerged from the bar the alley was adjacent to, hiccuping as he sung a song about love and life and great sex.

Chloe's eyes went red with bloodlust as she reached out and grabbed him, flinging him into the darkness of the alley, against the wall, and muffling his screams with her hand as she attacked, latching onto his neck and drinking. She could _feel_ the blood gushing into her body, filling her veins once more, jump-starting her organs. She drank and drank, emptying him before picking off another passerby and another, and another, and only when the fifth victim was dead at her feet was she fully healed and feeling normal once more.

Taking in a deep breath she purred, before frowning down at the dead bodies around her.

Great.

Now she was going to have to drag these all to the safety of the Temple of Night, then she'd have to stash her Sleeping cousin somewhere safe...and then she needed to get started with what she was supposed to be doing.

Kal needed her.

She _was_ the only one who had the knowledge of how to send the blood god back to sleep after all.

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Deacon towered above Blade, swaying back and forth in his new, liquid-like form.

"You cant hurt me anymore." He taunted as he rose upwards on a spiraling column of blood, a howl of laughter escaping his lips as he just as suddenly splashed back to earth, spreading out in a widening pool. In the blink of an eye he streamed through Blade's feet, re-solidifying behind the Daywalker.

Blade spun, swinging his dagger.

Once again, Deacon morphed into blood-form. Racing around Blade in a series of spouting arcs, he turned from blood-form to solid and back again in a series of split-second transformations.

Blade whirled around, striking with his dagger, missing every time.

Deacon suddenly dissipated, splashing away into a million blood bubbles, vanishing.

Blade spun around, unnerved, trying to pin-point his foe's next manifestation.

"Where are you?" He yelled around him.

Deacon's voice answered from all directions. "Everywhere."

A droplet of blood spattered on the floor at Blade's feet and the Daywalker looked in time for a shower of blood to rain down from above, coalescing into Deacon as he swept down on Blade like a giant bird of prey, crushing him against the temple floor.

"You want my blood so much?" Deacon chuckled, sounding insane. "Take it!"

Deacon's arms elongated and liquified, flowing into two snake-like spouts of blood while the rest of him remained solid. The blood-spouts twisted around Blade's neck, melding together, completely encasing Blade's head in a bubble of blood.

Blade clawed at the blood-bubble as if it were a solid object that he could dislodge, but his finger simply passed through it.

He was trapped, and running out of air.

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"So nice of you to join us."

Ignoring Kal's sarcastic drawl, Chloe's eyes narrowed as she reached his side, watching as Deacon slowly drowned Blade in his blood. "That's interesting."

From where he was leaning back against the wall, arms over his chest, watching the fight with apparent near boredom, Kal nodded. "He's been showing off like that for a while now, like a cat with a mouse." He smirked. "Or a boy with a new toy."

She could imagine that, eyes on Deacon before shaking her head and turning to Kal. "Do you have it?"

He smirked and pulled out a small vial of collected blood. "I went in and out there so fast while he was raining down that I don't think they noticed me." He then motioned to the goblet resting on the ground next to him. "You ready to do this?"

"Come on." She motioned with her head. "Blade doesn't look like he's going to be much of a distraction for much longer."

Kal surprised her by reaching down and picking her up bridal style in his arms.

She gasped, eyes wide.

He smirked down at her. "We've wasted enough time."

Chloe hid her face in his leather jacket as the world raced passed her in a blur, before seconds later she was deposited in the Bleeding Chamber.

Kal disappeared and reappear, returning with the goblet. "Don't want to be forgetting this."

"Thank you." She took the goblet him and gazed inside, following the stain of the blood to determine where the blood had been drunk from, and once done she went to now closed grid beneath the iron maiden, where Blade's blood was still pooled. She scooped up the blood through the same direction the blood had been drunk by Deacon previously, swishing the blood inside the goblet as she reached into her pocket and pulled out the bit of Deacon's hair she'd been able to tear out during their altercation at the Bone Pit.

Kal was suddenly by her side, uncorking the vial with a flirtatious little smile sent in her direction as he emptied LaMagra's blood in the mixture. "Doesn't all this blood get you going?"

She smirked, reaching with her free hand to push him away slightly when he leaned in closer. "Eyes on the prize, big boy."

His smile twisted into a cocky grin as he continued to gaze at her.

Rolling her eyes, Chloe spoke the words she'd memorized before deleting to show Deacon the translation, Kal watching with interest. The mixture of the DNA of the three main players began to simmer and bubble as she chanted, before suddenly the contents in the goblet caught on fire, the flames black. In seconds the flames died down to nothing, leaving behind a nearly transparent crimson liquid.

"That it?" Kal made a face.

"That was the easy part." Chloe scoffed, turning to him. "Now we actually have to get him to _ingest_ this."

Kal sneered before grabbing her. "That's all I needed to know."

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Blade was drowning in Frost's blood, his eyes bulging out, oxygen bubbles streaming from his mouth. He couldn't breathe, was hardly keeping onto consciousness. With the blood from the brunette he was stronger, yes, but he was no match for a blood god whom he couldn't even touch! Yet he refused to give up, to just _die_. Frost had taken everything and everyone from him, and Blade would not let him take his life away from him so easily! He'd been born fighting for survival and he'd die the same way!

Frost leaned in close, his face a twisted mask of insanity. "I was wrong about you, Blade. You were never one of us. You're a traitor to your race."

"Deacon!" Someone called.

Frost looked up to see that male vampire pulling in the struggling blonde.

"Stop it! Let me go!" She yelled, fighting against him viciously yet unable to get lose. "How _could_ you?"

Frost tilted his head, letting go of his hold on Blade, causing the Daywalker to take his first breath of air, fatigued and near lifeless. "What's going on here Kal?"

"She's trying to stop you from remaining LaMagra." Kal declared. "I've known and have been pretending to be her accomplice to see what exactly she knew."

"You bastard!" The blonde snarled at him, tears in his eyes. "I thought I could trust you! I thought you had my back!"

"I am _not_ Clark Kent!" He snarled down at her, giving her a vicious shake. "When will you get that?"

She slapped him.

He backhanded her, the force sending her flying to the ground before turning to Deacon. "There's a way to make LaMagra Sleep once more."

Blade held onto his consciousness at this.

Frost tensed. "_What_?"

"She didn't tell you, but there was a section of the texts left out of your copy which detailed how to send LaMagra back to sleep for at least another millennia."

"Kal don't!" The female begged, still kneeling on the ground, shoulders slumped in defeat. "_Please_."

"What is it?" Frost narrowed his eyes.

"A mixture of LaMagra's blood, the chalice, the Daywalker's blood, your hair, and an ancient chant." Kal replied, face and voice blank. "My job was to make sure you drank it once she created it, which would send LaMagra back into slumber and leave you vulnerable. I waited until she disclosed how it was to be used before bringing her to you."

"Good job." Frost seemed to forget about the Daywalker as he stormed towards the blonde and grabbed her by her hair, raising her up. "You ungrateful bitch!"

Blade kept his ground, breathing in and out, feeling his strength beginning to return to him.

"I was going to make you my Queen and you do this to me?" Frost's eyes were so red you couldn't make out the pupils, his voice low and like a multiple different voices in one. "You have disappointed me for the last time. You will watch as Vanessa drains the life out of your bleeder father before she has the pleasure of ripping you _apart_. I am LaMagra, I don't _need_ you anymore! I am _god_! I don't need anyone or anything!"

"Well, you'll need a new executioner." She hissed at him, raising her chin in defiance although there were tears of fear in her eyes. "I drank the life right out of Vanessa and then I staked her." Her eyes flashed with her defiance. "She tasted _good_."

Frost snarled before grabbing her hair and yanking her head viciously to the side before biting down on her neck, obviously deciding to give her the same treatment. He drank in deep, ignoring her struggles and screams and pleads for help.

The blonde slowly began to cease her struggles, her gaze first going to Blade in a look he couldn't decipher, and then her gaze found Kal's, her Judas', and her lips twisted in a smile.

Blade's eyes widened as he turned to look at the other vampire, who was eyeing the duo with narrowed eyes.

He was _concerned_.

Suddenly Frost yanked his fangs from the blonde's neck and dropped her, body beginning to spasm as he coughed. "What-what's happening?"

"I _did_ tell you my job was to get you to _drink_, didn't I?" Kal smirked as he picked up the injured blonde as the Temple of Night began to tremble.

Blade's eyes widened as he realized what had happened.

The female had ingested the potion, or injected herself with it maybe, and this whole spectacle had been an act to get Frost to drink from her...and thus her spiked blood.

"You _dare_ betray me?" Frost snarled at Kal, trying to walk towards him, only managing to collapse.

"On the contrary, I'm following your orders." Kal shifted the female's wait in his arms. "You told me to treat with _extreme prejudice_ anyone who touched her. I'm doing exactly that."

The female, obviously weak from blood loss, rested her head against his chest and closed her eyes.

Kal gazed down at her, silent for a moment, before turning to kick Blade's sword towards him. "How about you finish it this time?"

Blade grabbed his sword and used it to help him stand, turning to Frost.

The vampire's body was spasming violently as suddenly a shadowy wraith seemed to tear out from inside of him, causing a scream to erupt form his lips as it circled above him. One by one those creatures tore out of him causing agony to escape his lips, twisting his body in terrifying ways, joining the ever-increasing group flying like a tornado above him.

Finally the last ghostly spectral tore itself lose, joining its brethren in their circle above.

Frost stumbled to his feet.

Blade moved, racing towards the vampire and slamming his silver sword deep into the vampire's heart. "Seems I'm not the one at the wrong end of the fang, huh?"

Frost looked up at him, horror and confusion on his face, before with a scream of frustration and pain he went up in flames and ash.

Above Blade the shadow wraiths shrieked and raced back to their tombs as the Temple of Night began to crash down all around him.

He turned to where Kal and the blonde were but found them gone.

Taking in a deep breath, Blade began to stumble out of the place started falling down all around him.

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**Next chapter should be the last!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Blade**

Sequel to: House of Frost

Last chapter!

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Chloe gazed at the vial which supposedly had the cure in her hands. It'd been something new being distributed in Metropolis, with most vampires destroying any they could get into contact with (such as Kal) but a very small group of others had instead chosen to take the cure and return to humanity (such as Lois). It was Karen Jansen, Lois' hematologist friend, who'd been able to patent this cure which was, admittedly mostly detested by vampires, especially the half-bloods. Those who'd turned had grown used to their lives and preferred how things were for them, and thus the fear of being human once more had turned them against the creator of it. Karen had had to go underground immediately after distributing the first batch, the laboratory she'd been working in at the time ransacked and burnt to the ground within the week.

The blonde had to admit that she was relieved that the vampires had this 'crisis' to keep their attentions and not fixate on the fall of the House of Frost. With Kal and Chloe the only vampire survivors they'd been able to fabricate a story in which they'd barely made it out alive after the big bad Daywalker destroyed LaMagra incarnate. The Temple of Night and the Bone Pits were completely destroyed and nothing could be salvaged from the wreckage which was quite fortunate as then no one would ever know that LaMagra had been sent back to sleep long before Blade ended Deacon's life.

The House of Frost had fallen, Deacon's minions scattered, no one daring to go back to the House since it'd been compromised and the dreaded Daywalker now knew of its existence. Most of the vampires had left and disappeared, all scared, all preferring to be as far away from the city of the blood-god killing Daywalker as possible. But there were some who stayed behind, and while they were all hiding in different places they'd sought out and found Chloe and Kal where they were staying at an abandoned apartment block. Despite how young he was the vampires had known how strong Kal was, and the fact that he'd survived the Daywalker when Deacon hadn't made him more fascinating to them. He was a natural born leader, and those leaderless minions (or at least the ones who weren't fighting for dominion of Frost's territory themselves) flocked to him.

Kal was obviously enjoying this tremendously, and had grand ideas on where to take things from here.

"Are you going to take it?" Lois asked as they sat together on her sofa in her Metropolis apartment.

"I don't know." Chloe admitted, gazing at the vial of cure and at the syringe sharing its plastic bag. "I don't know if I could go back to the person I was before."

Lois lowered her gaze. "I understand...I...I _did_ transition to a vampire you know."

"You only fed from _one_ person before the cure was available." Chloe retorted. "I've lost count of my kills."

Lois held her mug tightly. "Smallville 2.0 isn't going to take the cure, huh?"

"Not a chance." Chloe replied with a sigh, still eyeing the vial.

"Poor Mr. and Mrs. Kent." Lois whispered, shaking her head. "They're still looking for him, you know. Just like Uncle Gabe hasn't given up on finding you."

Her heart hurt at the reminder of her father, but was it enough?

And would it even work?

According to Lois, Karen had said that the cure wouldn't work for Blade because his genetic makeup was different from a vampire's, she'd even gone as far as to say that she wasn't sure it was even _possible_ for there to be a cure for him. And if Blade was a Daywalker, and so was Chloe...didn't that obviously mean the cure wouldn't work on her either?

Chloe reached into the small plastic bag and pulled out the syringe, filling it with the liquid before straightening out her arm and injecting herself with the cure.

Lois gasped, eyes wide, sitting up straight, expectant, a smile growing on her face.

Chloe waited, waited for the pain Lois had described, for the feeling of one's fangs being pushed out of one's mouth to accommodate human teeth. Chloe waited for the burn, she waited for the pain in the joints, she waited...and waited.

And then she shook her head. "It didn't work."

"_What_?" Lois whispered, shaking her head. "_No_. That's not possible!"

"Obviously it's not a hundred percent accurate." Chloe declared, standing, having already known before injecting herself that this would have been the outcome. "I can't be cured."

"But _every_ vampire who was human once can be changed back!" Lois cried, standing up as well.

You see, that was the problem, Chloe hadn't been 'human', and she wasn't a 'vampire'.

There was no going back for her.

"Obviously that's not true." She dropped the syringe and vial into the nearest trash can. "I need to leave."

"Cuz..." Lois reached for her hand and stopped her. "We'll find some way to get you back."

Chloe sighed and turned to Lois. "I was relieved."

"What?" Lois whispered.

"I was relieved it didn't work." Chloe whispered, running her tongue over her fangs. "I only injected myself because I knew it wouldn't work."

"You couldn't have known." Lois pressed. "Chloe..."

"Lois, I love you, and I love dad, everyone." Chloe reached out and hugged her cousin tightly. "Never look for me again."

"_Chloe_." Lois hugged her, voice breaking as she held tightly.

"Promise me Lois." She pressed. "Let me live my life, and live yours. Okay? And be there for my dad, he's going to need you to be there for him in my place."

Lois held tighter, choked.

Chloe hugged back tightly, silent tears making their way down her cheeks as she finally said goodbye to her old life.

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Blade sat, gazing at Whistler's workstation.

He knew that he still had so much cleanup to do after the LaMagra incident, but he couldn't concentrate on the vampires here in Metropolis, even though they were now weak and vulnerable and easy pickings.

When he'd gotten back from the Temple of Night all those nights ago he'd gone to bury the remains of his mentor...and had found him gone.

Obviously the vampire venom had won out before Whistler could off himself...and now he was somewhere out there...one of the bloodsuckers he'd hated and hunted in life.

Karen Jansen had proved actually useful and had come up with a cure...and although Blade himself couldn't benefit from it he knew Whistler could.

He knew Lois had, he'd seen the brunette in the daylight the day before, but hadn't revealed his presence, still guilty for his weakness and for having tainted her in the first place.

And anyway, she wasn't important.

Whistler was.

Blade was going to find his mentor, wherever the vampires had him stashed, and he'd cure him...and if the cure didn't work, he'd do as he should have and he'd kill him.

Only once that was over he could concentrate on the vampires of Metropolis once more.

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"So, it didn't work, huh?"

Looking up as she exited Lois' apartment, Chloe wiped at her face, surprised to find Kal leaning against the outside of the building waiting for her. "How did you know I would try it?"

He snorted, turning his head towards her and passing her a helmet.

She made a face, slowly accepting the helmet she hadn't noticed before, before her gaze went to the ducati he was walking towards. "Since when do you have a motorcycle?"

He didn't answer, instead straddling the seat as he started the engine.

"Where exactly are we going?" Chloe wanted to know, amused at the helmet given the fact that should she receive a head trauma she would be fine...nothing a little blood couldn't cure...but she secured the helmet on nonetheless and climbed on behind him, arms going around his waist.

"Better hold on tightly." He declared. "I like to go fast."

And with that he sped into the street.

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Sitting in the darkness of the run down, abandoned house she was squatting in, Lana gazed at the syringe with cure she'd managed to procure. There were only a few of these syringes around, most of the vampires who found them destroyed them immediately, but she'd managed to get her hands on one and had been eyeing it for days now. It wasn't the nights that made her tempted to go back to being human, it was the days. She hated having to hide from the sunlight, being forced to remain in basements or cellars, hated the confinements. Ever since the fall of the House of Frost things had quickly gone to the shitter, and she didn't know how much longer she could handle this.

She couldn't do it, couldn't live the way she had since Deacon's death.

"This is a dump."

She gasped and looked up, eyes narrowing at the vampire who'd managed to sneak up on her. "Who are you?"

The male raised an eyebrow, pointing to his house's tattoo.

Lana's eyes widened as she stood, pocketing the capped syringe with the cure. "You're from the House of Damaskinos."

"And you're from the newly fallen House of Frost." He nodded, tall and intimidating. "The name's Reinhardt."

"Lana...Lang." She cleared her throat, unsure as to why he was there.

"So..." he leaned his hip against the wall, smirking at her. "I heard you've seen the Daywalker."

"Blade." Lana made a face, nodding, more intrigued than before. "Briefly."

"How about we go out for some dinner and we get to know each other?" He offered, lighting a cuban cigar and letting out some puffs of smoke.

Lana pressed her hand against the cure in her pocket, before her curiosity gave in and she smiled, flashing a glimpse of viper-like fangs. "Dinner sounds great."

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"Why exactly are we here?" Chloe wanted to know, curious, gazing up and down the darkened streets.

"Isn't it perfect?" Kal asked, gazing up at a building.

Chloe joined his side and gazed up at the large Clocktower. She sent him a sideways glance, not exactly sure what this building was perfect for, but as her gaze returned to it she had to admit that it had some charm. "I like it."

"Good." Kal rubbed his hands together. "Because if you didn't like it you would have lucked out."

"How exactly?" Chloe asked, curiosity growing. "What exactly is this place?"

"Tsk tsk, Miss Sullivan. I'm surprised you haven't figured it out already." Kal grinned, placing an arm around her shoulder and using the other to span in front of them, displaying the Clocktower. "It's our new home."

"New...?" She turned to look at him, eyes wide.

"I made a...withdrawal...from a bank in New York and paid for this place in full today." He replied, reaching into his leather jacket's pocket and pulling out a large set of keys. "Of course I'm going to need you to take charge of handling the renovations and upgrades, and I leave our security system to your discretion as well. I'll be busy with securing minions, just a few to start out with, a few familiars as well, and start making a name for the House of El."

"The House of El." She echoed, realizing that this was something he'd had planned all along, and only mildly annoyed that he hadn't shared it with her until now. "Have you figured out what your tattoo will look like?"

"It will be the symbol of my family." He replied, pride obvious in his tone. "Our name shall never be forgotten now."

She gazed down at herself before raising her inner wrist. "I think I'll get it here. Where will you get yours?"

His gaze went to her as his hand raised to clasp easily around her smaller one, his finger trailing over the inside of her wrist. "I like this."

Chloe gulped, her heart skipping a beat at the soft, barely there touch.

Kal brought her hand and laid it over his heart. "But I like this too."

Chloe's wide gaze rose to his, hating herself for the blush she could feel creeping up her cheek. "I like this too..." she suddenly turned crimson and shook her head, pulling her hand free. "I mean I like the idea of you getting your tattoo there." She nodded as she cleared her throat and folded her arms over her chest, turning to look at the Clocktower. "It makes it seem more personal, especially considering you say that it will be your family's symbol."

Kal watched her with a knowing smirk.

She ignored him, eyes on the Clocktower.

He passed her the large key ring with all the keys to the Clocktower. "You're going to have a lot of work ahead of you. We both are." He turned to gaze at the Clocktower as he slipped his arm around her shoulders once more, satisfaction emanating from him. "This is the beginning of our Empire."

She gazed at him, surprised that he'd said 'our' and not 'his', but she liked it...it made her feel like he planned on their being together and working together for years to come...something she hoped was true because eternity would be lonely as hell without him.

"Don't think I'm going to let you slack off on your share of the work." He replied warningly, gaze still on the Clocktower. "This is going to be our Home, and I will accept nothing but your best from you, and if I feel that you are not giving all you can I _will_ call you out on it."

She smiled, her fingers closing over the keys as she smiled at him. "Home." Her gaze went to the Clocktower. "I like the sound of that."

He gazed down at her. "Ready yet to hear what I call you?"

Her green gaze met his and she was tempted, truly tempted, to finally give in and ask what his petname for her was...and yet she just shook her head. "Not yet."

He paused before nodding, giving her a little squeeze. "Let's go see inside."

Excitement built inside of her as she nodded, grinning as she leaned into him. "Let's."

Together they walked towards the Clocktower, their new home, and the first step towards their future.

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**Hope you enjoyed "LaMagra!"**


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